Social media may have seemed to appear quickly, but it has also immediately become one of the most important platforms for B2B marketing. According Hubspot, 80 percent of marketers have noted that social media marketing was important for their business. Moreover, Social Media Examiner has found that 85 percent of participants don’t know which social media tools are the best to use. There isn’t any question that social media marketing can increase your brand recognition. Here are the best ones to target.
Twitter was officially launched in July 2006. By 2012, it had over 100 million users who were posting 340 million tweets each day. If you’re interested in link building, Twitter might not be your first stop, but it should be. Why? Well, you can create lists of industry influencers you would like to follow. When they tweet about stories they are working on, you might ask if you can make a contribution.
Then, you have a backlink from an authority you trust. Plus, Twitter is simply massive. As of April August 2015, Twitter has 1.3 billion registered users. Not to mention, it has 120 million unique monthly visitors. That is a market you cannot afford to miss. Other opportunities on Twitter include:
- Engaging with your target market
- Using it for competitive intelligence
- Improving your reputation
- Promoting your blog
Google+
Google+ was first launched in 2011. Just two weeks later, it reached 10 million users. By the end of that year, it had 90 million users. There is an unfortunate myth going around that Google+ is a ghost town. Actually, this couldn’t be further from the truth. According to GlobalWebIndex, Google+ has 343 million active users. That number does not take into account the actual number of people who have signed up for Google+ accounts. What makes this social media space so special is Google+ users can choose who they want to circle. That means, your followers have chosen you.
As a result, any information you send out was received by warm leads. Not to mention, you can do some research on users who have circled you and circle them back. When it comes to marketing, there is nothing more important than user data to assist with message customization.
What’s more is you get to make users feel that you care about them by inviting them to private hangouts, private events and private communities. Then, there is the fact that you increase your organic search results. If you post on Google+, your content gets ranked higher than if you post it somewhere else since it is tied in with the Google search engine.
One of the top social media platforms you can use is Facebook. It started out as a private network for Harvard college students, where founder Mark Zuckerberg, had attended. On September 26, 2006, it was opened to everyone aged 13 and older with a valid email address. In late 2007, the site had 100,000 business pages. It now has millions. Like the other platforms, sign up is free and can be set up immediately. Creating a business page on Facebook couldn’t be more easy and straightforward. There you can put useful information such as your company history and product details. Then, there is also the interactive aspect.
Whether you host a live video Q&A session, or simply respond to comments on your posts, there are a multitude of ways for engaging your clients and prospects. In fact, Facebook has 1.09 billion daily active users and 1.65 billion monthly active users. This is over a 20 percent growth from the previous year. That is quite impressive given that Facebook had 1 million users when it made its private debut in 2004. Other options for B2B marketing on Facebook include:
- Creating a news room
- Sharing product testimonials
- Promoting creative videos
- Highlighting brand advocates
According to an Investis IQ Audience Insight report 2013, most visitors to corporate websites came from LinkedIn. This is why it is imperative you are on this site. Although, each of the major social media sites has their merits, LinkedIn can produce quite a number of qualified B2B leads and conversions. The company first launched in May 5, 2003. By 2006, it had 20 million users. Today, the site has over 300 million users from 200 countries and territories. On LinkedIn you can:
- Share posts
- Build relationships with other users
- Create a business page
- Increase traffic to your site
When it comes to these top social media sites, the sooner you start your B2B marketing, the sooner you can see the benefits. It takes time to build an audience, so what are you waiting for? When done right, you can get more traffic, conversions and customers. Social media is here to stay, plant your seeds today.
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