The Biggest Question When Using B2B Social Media

Sometimes I become a bit skeptical when I see the huge uptake in social media by B2B marketers. In fact, recent research by Junta42 and Marketing Profs finds that use of social media is the top B2B tactic in use as identified by 79% of 985 marketers. Unfortunately, only 31% of those marketers said they found it effective.

In a recent Harvard Business Review Analytic Services study, only 12% of 2,100 executives say that their companies are using social media effectively.

So what's the biggest question to ask when using B2B social media in marketing?

Will it blend?

It's this disconnect that needs to be corrected before B2B marketers will begin to generate the results that social media--used well--can help them to achieve.

Social Media is Content Marketing.

It's not some offshoot that sits in a silo like a toy to be brought out and used when it suddenly occurs to you:

Oh, I should go Tweet that!

Or post it on Facebook or share it with a LinkedIn group, etc.

Just as there is art and science in creating contagious content that your prospects' value, the same should be applied—in parallel—to social media.

When you create an article or a blog post or any content asset worth sharing, you should also create Tweets and snippets for sharing via your social media accounts. Do it intentionally and during the development of your content.

Look at how it flows from your outward-facing profiles. After all, that's how many people will evaluate whether or not they want to follow you. The click through and scan what you're posting to see if you're—wait for it—interesting and relevant to them.

It's a solid practice to Tweet things more than once as the common theory is that Tweets have a shelf life of about an hour to drive response. However, considering it from a profile perspective, which leaves a better impression:

The Biggest Question When Using B2B Social Media + link [posted 6 hours ago]

The Biggest Question When Using B2B Social Media + link [posted 4 hours ago]

The Biggest Question When Using B2B Social Media + link [posted 2 hours ago]

OR

The Biggest Question When Using B2B Social Media + link [posted 6 hours ago]

Will your social media blend? + link [posted 4 hours ago]

Only 12% of executives say social media is effective - Here's how to change that. + link #HBR [posted 2 hours ago]

You'd be surprised how many profiles look like the first version. Even with a few other RTs and original Tweets, when someone scrolls your profile to evaluate your potential value to them as a news filter, the first version is immediately recognizable and smacks of self-interest.

Imagine what it looks like on your Facebook page if you have your Tweets sync'd to post in both places. Yikes! Facebook is different than Twitter. It deserves a different posting treatment. In fact, be very careful that you don't take the lazy way out and automate all your social media accounts to broadcast the same stuff simultaneously. It's obvious and lazy.

Each destination should have a unique twist, style and presentation. And this can work even if you're posting links to the same content on several platforms. It just requires a bit of thought and planning rather than executing social media as a fait accompli each time you publish new content.

Social media will drive results if you treat it with respect rather than as just another megaphone. Really, no one cares. You need to show them why they should. And that means your social media participation needs to be an inclusive component of your content marketing strategy.

How do your audiences differ from one platform to another?

Or even within the same platform? Are you posting the exact same thing to all 18 groups you belong to on LinkedIn, for example? Some people likely belong to more than one of the groups you do. Have you thought about the impression that makes?

Twitter restricts what you can say to 140 characters. Facebook doesn't. Each group in LinkedIn is created around a specific topic. Establishing the right context is important on all of them.

Oh, and social media is definitely content marketing. Now that marketers are becoming publishers working without a net and outside of our "controlled" web environments, everything we post online is content, leads to more content and is responsible for having an impact on the perception of our company's reputation, credibility, intentions and humanness.

Go take a look at how you're using social media just as others will. Does it blend?

Comments

[Candyce Edelen]

Thanks for this post, Ardath. You are absolutely right.

[Doug Kessler]

Great post. It's funny how many people use a new medium like Twitter to do things they'd never do in other media. Imagine standing at a cocktail party, saying, 'want to build your personal brand? Here's my card' over and over again.

(Having said that, I have started doing an auto DM welcoming new followers and suggesting a piece of content. Is this annoying? Bad etiquette? am I guilty of exactly what you're talking about?)

[Ardath Albee]

Thanks, Candace!

Hi Doug - LOL! I can always count on entertaining comments from you. This said, great way to say it.

As for Auto DMs - I don't like them. I can tell it's an auto generated DM. I find them presumptuous and usually salesy. To extend your analogy - it's the equivalent of "here's my card, now buy me a drink" An auto DM with a link is like asking for me to pay you with my attention before I even get to know you, or why I should.

Although, since I do know you, I'm betting yours is not in the least salesy and it's probably got humor rolled into it. But I still think Auto DMs are pushy because the interaction is not about being present and personal.

Your mileage may vary...

[Shane Miller]

Hey really the points you have mentioned are worth keeping in point...Thanks for sharing it with us!!

[Brad Fallon]

Will it blend?, it is the biggest question indeed. Just like this moment wherein I am trying to post a comment, I am trying to blend with what you had discussed or else I would be deleted from this post because I stray out of topic (of which I am not :). Just like social media, you would be deleted from the marketing business if you don't relate your content to the target audience that you would like to share.
Great post. Keep it up.

[business directory]

Oh;That's very great.I am impressed with this post.

[ecommerce solution]

Social Media plays an important role in how people use the Web these days. That is already affecting the way many people work, into their personal lives. In 2014, eMarketer estimates that 65% of all Internet users use social networks. We know that Google now uses the algorithm of "social graph" is a sign of authority.