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A Practical Social Media Strategy for B2B Marketers

by Jennifer Beever

Social Media SystemSocial media is still a relatively new tactic in town for B2B marketers. The key to success in the B2B world is having a practical and measured approach to implementation. Here are some tips for approaching social media practically.

1. Have a strategic vision of how social media fits into marketing as a whole.

I like the “hub and spoke” system (see the image above) which I believe was introduced by the founders of Hubspot, a marketing automation software company. [Side note – I tried to find the originator through a Google search so I could provide proper attribution, so readers, please advise if I am off base here….] The concept is that your website is a hub of online marketing, and social media drives traffic and activity to the site.

2. Know your customers or clients, and their social media attitudes and behaviors.

Why jump into social media without knowing if your customers are “there.” And, where is “there?” It’s important to know as much as possible about your customers. How do they think? What do they like? What language do they use? What social media platforms do they use?

3. Take a measured and practical approach to getting into social media.

Depending on your sense of urgency, you can chose one platform with which to start. You don’t have to do it all. For B2B marketers, this is often LinkedIn. And, even with the one platform, there are various levels of activity. With LinkedIn you can build your personal profile and begin connecting with colleagues. You can also create a company page on LinkedIn, which few B2B marketers have done.

So before you jump into social media implementation, take a measured approach to planning your effort. Don’t be part of the 65% of businesses who haven’t updated their blog in a year (see the blogging.org Infographic in Jeff Bullas’ post, Blogging Statistics, Facts and Figures in 2012 – Infographic), or the sad company that has a Twitter account with few or no tweets.

New Incite provides social media consulting, set up, training and outsource implementation services. For more information about how you can get started or improve your existing marketing, contact New Incite founder Jennifer Beever today.

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