B2B Social Media Marketing: What Works

In my last post, we covered situations in which an industrial company will probably not benefit from B2B social media marketing. So what does it look like when social media is “working” for a manufacturing or industrial service company?

Working (not necessarily all, but a combination of):

• There is a dedicated team responsible for execution
• There is a strategy / plan in place
• Frequent social media posts are increasing traffic to your website
• You are building communities, like a LinkedIn group, with increasing numbers
• You are engaging with others in your industry and becoming known as a problem solver or thought leader
• You are servicing customers and resolving their problems on your SM pages
• You are recruiting qualified personnel through your SM pages
• You are posting quality content that sparks comments, discussions, and that drives more traffic back to your website

Let’s look at each of the major social networks for B2B industrial companies and the activities that are driving results for them.

Twitter

Believe it or not, marketers consistently give Twitter the highest marks for ROI when surveyed about B2B social media. Regardless of the survey, the percentages are always close. Despite what many of the old guard in B2B companies believe, their perfect customers, employees, and vendors ARE using Twitter.

• If one of your main business objectives is recruiting, Twitter can drive a lot of young recruits your way.
• There are many B2B companies that have established a presence on Twitter by hosting weekly Twitter “chat sessions” focusing on their industry or some common problems or issues facing their customer base.
• For larger B2B’s, Twitter can be an excellent way to handle customer service issues – as long as you have someone monitoring almost continually. One thing Twitter users do NOT like to do is wait for a response!
• If you exhibit at a lot of large trade shows, Twitter is becoming more and more of a player in helping companies connect who might otherwise pass each other by.  Most major trade shows have Twitter hashtags, and savvy attenders and exhibitors communicate with the show community through use of the hashtag.

LinkedIn

I know Twitter wins in the surveys, but in our experience with our client base, LinkedIn comes in number one in driving qualified traffic to websites and creating sales opportunities. There are so many niche oriented groups on LinkedIn, regardless what you sell, you’re bound to find some of your customers hanging out in some of them. Engaging in LinkedIn groups requires more time than posting on Twitter or Facebook; but I believe there are more real opportunities to bring a prospect closer to becoming a customer.

• Do searches to find groups where you see potential customers and join them.
• Sign up to receive daily updates from those groups (through email) and look for opportunities to be of service to others in the group. Is someone experiencing a problem that you have a solution for? Don’t be salesy – be conversational. You are a friend or colleague, offering a solution.
• When there is new content on your company blog or YouTube channel, post it in appropriate groups.
• If you can find a niche area that doesn’t already have a group on LinkedIn, start your own.  This is an excellent way to engage with others in your industry and potential customers, and YOU control the conversations and discussions.

Facebook

This is the hard nut to crack for most B2B industrials; but with over 1.11 billion users and counting daily, a company that is serious about social media cannot discount Facebook. What many B2B’s don’t understand is that almost across the board, people go to Facebook to be entertained, or connect with friends and family.  By its very nature, Facebook is much more “social” than other major social media networks. B2B’s have to use a different strategy on Facebook. It’s OK to occasionally post something that sounds like marketing spin, but make 80% of your Facebook posts about human interest, or 3’rd party links to information about your industry. Make Facebook the “human” face of your company, and encourage employees to post to the page.

What kind of posts?

• Your employees’ achievements and contributions
• Charitable work in the community
• Involvement in community based initiatives
• Awards or other industry related recognition
• Customer visits
• Special events, held at your facility or off-site

YouTube

Video is becoming more and more important if you really want to capture someone’s attention. Creating a YouTube channel for your company is smart since YouTube is owned by Google, and this somehow plays into search results.

YouTube videos don’t have to be professional productions that cost thousands of dollars.  If your budget is small, invest in an expensive video camera and put it in the hands of someone in your company who knows something about shooting video (believe me, there are plenty around – especially parents of young children!) Here are some ideas for B2B industrial videos that don’t require a great deal of scripting, although voice over will be needed for the optimum video experience:

• Arrange a customer interview with prepared questions and answers
• Do casual, impromptu video interviews at a trade show
• Take a virtual tour of your manufacturing facility
• Video a portion of your manufacturing process
• Video products you manufacture with instructions on installatioin, or use
• Employee interviews

Google+

Most people today have heard of Google+, but few in the industrial area know what it’s for or have an account. You need to know that Google+ is a force to be reckoned with.  GlobalWebIndex recently reported that Google+ is the number 2 social network in the world with 359 million monthly active users (Facebook at number 1 with 903 million accounts).

Nobody knows how Google+ will evolve, but many believe it is rapidly becoming one of the most influential content publication platforms for businesses interested in higher search rankings. The data in a piece of content posted on Google+ is immediately indexed for Google search. On Twitter or Facebook, Google has restricted access to the data and indexing can take a few days.

Here are some tips for engaging with readers on Google+:

• Follow active people relevant to your business
• Take time to comment
• Participate in hangouts
• Publish high-quality content on a consistent basis

Pinterest

Right now, women aged 25-50 represent the majority of Pinterest users – almost 80%.  This would not typically be a target demographic for industrial companies, so you decide. It wouldn’t hurt to open an account in your company’s name so you have it locked in.  Who knows which social media sites will dominate in the future? Pinterest is primarily a visual network, a place for people to share pictures of things they are interested in.  Industrial companies may be challenged to supply a steady stream of visual content, but here are some ideas:

• Product photos
• Employee headshots with bios
• Photos taken at tradeshows and other special events
• Photos taken in your facility or manufacturing area
• Customer or vendor photos with a short plug

Everything Else

There are differing opinions about whether it makes sense for a manufacturing or industrial service company to invest time on the many other social media platforms such as Instagram, Tumblr, Vimeo, or Foursquare just to name a few.  There is not a lot of information yet about industrial B2B companies that have met business objectives on  sites other than the ones listed above.  I don’t recommend any of them to my clients; but as I said previously, who knows what social networks will eventually rise to the top?  If you have the resources, you should investigate whether or not to invest in other social platforms.

The important thing is this: you MUST begin integrating social media into your marketing mix, and not in the ways that DON’T work.  The companies who don’t will one day wake up and realize their competitors have left them in the dust.