Mingling with your audience means more than just tweeting out your @BusinessName and riding on the coattails of a few hashtags. It’s about amplifying the voices of those who inspire you, listening to customers who want to talk to you, and engaging your audience with a distinctive brand voice. Social media is still underused for B2B lead gen – and that’s great news for you if you’re ready to take full advantage of it by keeping these basics in mind.
Keep It Natural
Customers can generally tell if the person in charge of your social media content is, in fact, a person. Let your personality shine through; it helps people connect to your company on an individual level and shows them that you aren’t a bot. There’s a place for automation in social media, but it’s to manage releases, not write them. Social media lends itself to more casual communication, so talk naturally with your followers.
Post with a Purpose
To make your social media channels more compelling, have a reason beyond “We want to sell you something” when you post. Stay on-topic and relevant to your audience; for a B2B social media account, that means sticking to professionally useful information and steering away from cat videos, no matter how adorable they may be. You can still express some personality, but make sure you’re keeping your audience focused on who your company is, why you’re posting, and what you have to offer.
Ask for Action
It’s good to get more traffic to your social media channels. It’s great to turn some of that traffic into active participation with plenty of clickable links and embedded videos. When you post a link, surround it with enough text to put it into context and ask viewers outright to take action: “Only 30% of B2B businesses have good sales/marketing integration. Does yours? Click to take the quiz and find out!” is an example of a call to action on Twitter. It presents a nugget of information, sets up a question in a lead’s mind, and invites that reader to become actively engaged.
Share the Good Stuff
We read some great articles on sales and marketing automation, lead gen, and database management. We know many of our readers enjoy those in-depth articles too, so we share what we find so everyone becomes better informed. By sharing, we also gain some traction for our own blog posts and white papers, bringing our insights to a wider audience. If your social media stream is all about you, consider inviting some other interesting guests to take the stage with you via retweets and links. One caveat: Check the sources of your linked articles to ensure you aren’t funneling traffic to competitors.
Convert with Trust
“Likes” aren’t leads – but they still matter more than many B2B companies know. Every positive interaction visitors take with your social media content is a brief handshake, a sign that they’re getting to know you by name and reputation. Eventually, handshakes will become hugs, but they aren’t letting you that close until they know you better. Earn their trust with a steady flow of useful, relevant information presented in ways that respect your audience’s time and attention.
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