Small businesses and major corporations are both constantly trying to generate new business. Lead generation can be done a number of ways: through lead generation services, online marketing, tradeshows and more. Social media is the talk of the town for B2C businesses, but B2B companies are just getting on board. Successful B2B online marketers are using social media and seeing a positive impact from doing so. Did you know that the companies who actively manage social media campaigns have seen comparatively high conversion rates as well as healthy engagement rates (Optify’s B2B Marketing Benchmark Report)? If you’re wondering how to nurture those leads you’ve generated on social networks, take these 3 steps for greater success.

Step One: Connect

You may have made contact with a lead once… or maybe you haven’t. Social networks are a great way to reach out leads directly through mediums other than email or the phone. Optify found that Twitter is the strongest social media channel for generating leads. It even outperforms Facebook and LinkedIn 9-to-1 with 82% of social media leads coming from Twitter. Lead generation and lead nurturing efforts can be improved as your sales and marketing teams connect with these people and business decision-makers on social networks.

• How to Find Them: You have their contact information. Use it to find and connect with these prospects on networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
• How to Connect: Personalize your connection requests, especially with LinkedIn. If you’re asking someone to become a fan of your company on Facebook, provide them with a valid reason they should.

Step Two: Engage

Engagement with prospects can mean different things for different businesses, but the often overall goal is to create a deeper relationship with those potential customers. Engagement involves your business providing value to these leads via social networks. According to Optify, website engagement from different social media channels varies, but LinkedIn leads the pack while Twitter shows the lowest page views per visit.

• Tweet prospects directly to let them know when an event is taking place in their industry.
• Aim to become a thought leader for your customers to turn to by providing content that can help them gain new insight into how to be more successful. Share your content and the content of others – you don’t want to be overly self-promotional.

Step 3: Convert

Conversion is the ultimate goal. Connecting and engaging a lead are necessary steps in order to convert a lead into a customer. Social media can be the final point of contact between a prospect and your business or brand, so make each touch point count. Facebook is the strongest driver of traffic among the three (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), but Twitter leads the way for lead generation.  While Facebook drove the highest percentage of visits from social media, Twitter outperforms it in terms of lead conversion by over a 9-to-1 ratio.

• The B2B buying process has changed and now customers are more likely to come to you when they are ready instead of responding to advertisements. Provide ways for prospects to become customers on your social networks such as with applications, social media specific discounts, etc.
• Optimize your landing pages so that as a customer comes to your pages via social networks, they don’t become lost and have a way to carry on the conversation, via live chat or easy social sharing.

Some may not see the value in lead nurturing via social media. However, it is time to open your eyes to the possibility of these expanding networks. The 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, sponsored by Social Media Examiner, found that 58% of marketers who have been using social media for more than three years report it has helped them improve sales. Social media is where you business can truly become creative in how to attract, engage and convert leads you have generated. Lead nurturing isn’t restricted to follow-up calls and emails. Brand out and stand out with a social media nurturing campaign.

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Social business and an engaging social content strategy go hand in hand. The content you produce can incorporate a number of assets including checklists, images, videos, copy and social posts. Social media and the social content strategy approach have more in common with all other forms of content marketing than you might think. We know content marketing is on the rise for B2B businesses in 2013, but how is social media included in this number? As you develop your strategy, keep these three things in mind.

Talk Through Your Audience

It is easier to get your brand, content, and social posts in front of people who already connect with your business. What about the audience beyond your immediate fan base? B2B marketers, especially those on a budget, need to create ways to talk through their audience. The audience of your audience, and their audience, are potentially new customers for you. As you develop your social content strategy, consider the ways in which you can talk through your current audience to connect with new audiences.

• What do your customers want? Focus on the content that your customers want and what social networks are the best for sharing and promoting that type of content. For example, if you’re targeting IT professionals, LinkedIn may be a better place to start than Pinterest.
• What do they want to experience? Consider the type of experience someone will have when they encounter or share your content. The experience, whether it’s a phone conversation or the way in which they find information on your site, should be a consideration with everything you do.

For B2B buyers, their audience isn’t family and friends for the way it is for B2C buyers. A significant number of B2B buyers (38%) involve more team members in buying decisions, and around 30% do more detailed ROI/cost analyses of solutions than they did in the past (2012 Demand Gen Report B2B Buyer Survey). This means, B2B marketers need to find a way to reach  all the decision makers involved in the purchasing process.

Understand Content Strategies are Social by Nature

Business may be about the numbers, but marketing and sales are all about the chains and the paths customers take to reach the end of it. There are the sales and marketing funnel, buyer journey and more. “What the customer wants you to know” equals understanding what your audience and their audience want you and other vendors to know. The social B2B buyer and buyers in general are affected by the opinions of their peers. As mentioned, business buying is a group decision. While this conversation may be offline, it often begins or ends online.

• Reach out to leads who are in the research phase of the buying cycle with whitepapers, case studies and infographics that not only educate the buyer, build thought leadership but are also easily shared on social networks.
• If possible, share the demographics of who else is buying from your business. Your prospects may be interested in knowing who, in their area or industry, has found success with your products or services.

Nearly all B2B buyers (94%) view multiple pieces of content from the company they ultimately select (2012 Demand Gen Report B2B Buyer Survey). This is one indication that you need to be producing content that your audience will find relevant and useful in making a purchasing decision. The other key indicator in this passage that you should be focusing on is that of multiple pieces. For example, you can create calculators, webinars, case studies, eBooks and buyer guides. Each of these unique pieces of content helps elevate your business and brand.

Be Relevant to Address Needs

You may have been able to pick it up from the previous sections of this article or past blog posts, but the content your marketing and sales teams share needs to be relevant. What your customers and their audiences say should serve as inspiration for the content you create from a social perspective. Listening is the basis, while acting to drive action and sharing are the goals. Content is what brings these two together successfully.

• Start social listening, if you aren’t already, to discover the pain points of your audience and their audience. Then use content and social media to solve these problems. Note: add example of how they should do this.
• Segment, target, and personalize your content to be as relevant as possible. Social media is not for amplification, it’s for social conversations.

More than 37% of buyers say sellers fail to provide enough content tailored for their specific job roleor industry. Stand out from the crowd while nurturing a lead by providing relevant content that they’ll find valuable. Nearly 63% of the respondents said that case-study examples were at the top of their research content lists. Industry case studies that address the pain points are a sure way to encourage your content gets shared.

Social media networks are important platforms for every business. It provides you with the opportunity to connect on a more personal level with your audience. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by! Talk to and through your social audience by developing a content strategy that focuses on relevance and tailored content.

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B2B marketers are always looking for an edge – something that will set their business and efforts apart from others. A new study from BtoB Online (with Eloqua) of 556 digitally active marketers found that modern marketers embrace technology, digital channels and dynamic content and have a commitment to sales enablement. When asked at what stage their companies are in improving go-to-marketing effectiveness, 68% said they are “strongly” or “fully” committed to improvement. In order to improve marketing effectiveness, spend some time considering whether or not your marketing team is changing with the times. Modern marketers need three things to be successful: digital aptitude, content knowledge, and sales enablement skills.

1. Digital Aptitude

The world of marketing is increasingly becoming more data driven. Marketers want to make sure that their time, money, and other resources are being directed to the right place. Successful modern marketers are making the most of data and digital solutions so no time or budget is wasted. At Business.com, virtually every marketing investment (of dollars and resources) is data-driven. While creating the infrastructure, processes and systems to support this requires an investment of time and money, it definitely pays off. When asked what has contributed the most to modern marketing, 60% responded that the ability to track marketing ROI with technology has contributed the most to modern marketing. “Big Data” is a concern for modern marketers as 35% said they are working to overcome poor infrastructures in the collection and analysis of data and 29% said they simply lack data to support their colleagues in sales. With the use of data and software solutions that are audience-oriented, modern marketers can reach target prospects more effectively.

2. Content Knowledge

An emphasis on content marketing has led to a shift in marketing as a whole. From where content is distributed to what type of content is produced, marketers must make sure they’re getting the right content to the right people. When asked what has contributed the most to modern marketing, many indicated the ability to track ROI as noted earlier. However, a large portion of those surveyed (42%) indicated that the shift in power from the brand to the customer is changing marketing. Another 58% of respondents cited the effective use of social media. This is huge because social media networks are a main content distribution channel for B2B marketers. Prospects want content and marketers know they need to provide it. Demand-generation and lead nurturing techniques are changing because of this. In fact, 42% respondents cited the maturation of demand generation and lead nurturing as a contribution to the change in modern marketing. You need to know the type of content that will most appeal to your audience as well as how to get it into the hands of those people in order to be effective. That’s where sales skills come in.

3. Sales Enablement Skills

Understanding the buyer journey, the key decision makers and influencers as well as their roles and responsibilities can help marketers more clearly define their profiling for greater success. Modern marketers need to build relationships with buyers just as sales representatives do. The rise in both content marketing and social provide the vehicle for creating and nurturing these relationships. When asked what factors are driving the needs of modern marketers, 60% of respondents identified the need to achieve fast and relevant touch points in the market, 35% identified increasing difficulties in conveying timely offers and messages to specific customers, and 12% indicated a general decline in the awareness of brands. Getting marketing and sales working together can make a huge difference in the efficiency and success of your business in connecting and closing with prospects.

Modern B2B marketers will make the most of the data and software solutions in front of them to yield the greatest ROI. Having a digital aptitude is necessary as the business world becomes more data driven and efficient with technology. Understanding the customer, the buying process and the decision makers can help marketers develop more targeted content that sells without directly selling. Content that converts is and must be a focus. Successful modern marketers are able align targeting with changing market and business needs.

What other qualities does a modern marketer need to possess?

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A new study from Optify looked at the websites of over 500 of the Inc 5000 fastest growing companies and found that only 37% are using autoresponders to follow up on leads. Our research has found that there is a direct correlation between follow-up timing and conversion rates. Because a sales rep is not always available to reach out immediately to a lead, auto response emails are a simple and effective way for your business to communicate with a new prospect. There are four elements to an auto responder: a form, a “thank you” page, an email and cadence. Your initial and follow-up emails need to be branded, relevant and timeless. Our testing has found that emails sent from a person within the company, as opposed to sending from a generic company name, drive a higher response. Auto response email campaigns are a great way to stay connected with prospects after they submit a form and here are three ways your business can make the most of them.

The Thank You Page

A clear call to action can direct your customer further down the conversion funnel. The thank you page is an opportunity to upsell, cross-sell or deepen engagement with links to your blog or social networks. Focus on delivering content on your thank you page that helps the reader make sense of everything they just read and how they can put it into action to improve their business. You can even offer additional downloads. Turn your thank you page into a resource page and a way your business can continue to build its brand.

• Optify found that 91% of the B2B companies analyzed displayed a “Thank You” page stating that the form was received
• Only 18% of those with thank you pages displayed a call-to-action upon form submission. Be sure your thank you page encourages leads to continue interacting with your business.

The First Follow-Up

A fast auto response email places your business in the eyes of a potential customer again, before they have a chance to forget about your business and the form they filled out. Include trackable links to content on your site or blog. Sales teams are often reaching out to leads via phone calls. Your team’s first follow-up shouldn’t be a call or an email. It needs to be both. Timing is everything and when responding to a completed form within 5 minutes versus 10 minutes leads to a 900% increase in contact rate, your business needs to be reaching out to touch base quickly and through multiple communication channels if needed.

• 70% of the companies that use autoresponders send the first email within 15 minutes of a form being submitted with the average response time for these companies being just over 3 minutes.
• Only 58% of the immediate (within 15 minutes of submission) auto response emails were personalized.
• Emails sent in between phone calls raise the chances of achieving contact by 16% (Leads360).

The Next Follow-Up

Play with timing until you find the best time to submit emails. One best practice your business can follow is the 3:7 schedule. While your first email is sent immediately, second and third emails can be sent 3 days after form submission and then again one week after submission. After the first email, your follow-up emails need to progress depending on where the person is in the purchasing funnel. Letting the user know what to expect provides an additional layer of transparency to your lead nurturing process.

• 6% of the initial auto response emails contained an indication of a future email (Optify).
• Most companies send more than one follow up email — the average number of follow up emails sent in the first week was 2.54 and the average interval between the first and second email was just over 30.5 hours.
• The data from Leads360 reveals that the optimal number of email messages to increase conversion during the first month of a prospect’s lifetime is 5.

Combining the findings for phone calls and emails, the most effective contact strategy involves 6 phone calls and 5 emails, interspersed over 22 days. Use auto responders to make this process more efficient. An effective auto responder campaign generates a response. Give the prospect another opportunity to request additional information and connect with your business. An auto response program collects additional information about each prospect that your company and sales reps can use to prioritize follow-up. You can use your auto response efforts to nurture leads and guide them through the conversion funnel for greater optimization and success.

Has your business seen success with the use of auto response emails? How so?

(Image: Optify)

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Business.com was all over the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego this year. Business.com exhibited at the show, attended a few keynotes and workshops, and connected with some impressive marketers. On top of gaining insights into industry trends, we took away some great marketing ideas and tools. Here are a few of the events our team attended and the key takeaways:

How to Discover Hundreds of Powerful Content Ideas for Your Business, Presenter: Arnie Kuenn from Vertical Measures

Content development needs to be a part of your marketing strategy. If you don’t think blogs are worth the time, think again. The presenter share this stat: businesses with blo
gs on their site get 55% more traffic. If you’re stuck when it comes to creating new content, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

• Provide quality content that is valuable to your readers. The value is what keeps them coming back.
• Use Answers, Yahoo and Google extra suggestions to see what people are searching for around your keywords.
• Use OpenSiteExplorer.org to see what pages of your competitors are being shared and linked to as this indicates which content consumers view as valuable. You should be writing on similar topics.

Content Marketing like a Pro: Tactics and Techniques to Increase Search Engine Visibility, Presenter: Daryl Colwell from MediaWhiz

All content shared/written should result in your business acquiring contact information from the reader, customer or buyer. As we’ve written about before, it is important to plan your publishing around the buying cycle so customers are getting the most pertinent information at the right time. Don’t be afraid to step out from purely text content. Use other types of content to lure new visitors in. For example, tease potential customers with a snippet of a whitepaper, then ask for them to register their email before getting full access to the content in its entirety. When possible, create an editorial calendar so that you don’t lose track of the content creations and promotions that are coming up. Whatever content you’re using, make sure that once it’s been created you’re promoting it with media.

Getting From ‘Like’ to Buy, Presenter: Kevin Ryan from Motivity Marketing

When sharing content on Facebook, get visual. Photos are more likely to be ‘Liked’ and shared on the social network. This is important for your business as these interactions are logged by Facebook and their EdgeRank algorithm.  If someone likes a photo, it will impact whether or not you are more likely to appear in their news feed down the line. Content on social networks needs to be consumable and shareable. Think quality over quantity. If you are wondering what that content is that will be most successful, look for correlations between what is doing well in terms of keywords on social and what is doing well on search. Sync advertisements and content with where your business is performing well in search traffic.

Improving Lead Generation Using the Social Media Advancements in 2012, Presenter: Rebecca Corliss from HubSpot

Consumers are in the driver’s seat. No longer can marketers pitch what they want and expect it to be what the consumer wants. Businesses need to change their strategies and focus on the customer first before creating content. When using social media to generate leads, you want to create content, whether it’s a landing or product page or a blog post, people will love. That lovable content is becoming visual. Images on Facebook will, on average, attain 53% more Likes than a regular post. Hubspot experienced a 17% visitor lead conversion by sharing their e-books on Pinterest as visuals. They also shared that when using Vine alongside Twitter for their #inbound chat they saw higher engagement for that session than they had when using Twitter alone. Marketers, make friends with your designers because marketing is becoming more and more visual and you’ll want their help.

We had a great time at the Online Marketing Summit and hope all those who attended did to. If you attended a workshop not listed here, let us know what key points you walked away with by leaving a comment, sending us a tweet, or connecting with us on Facebook.

Do you agree with the information these speakers shared?

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The outlook from B2B marketers is positive in 2013. The BtoB Online report, “Outlook 2013: Marketing Priorities & Plans,” found 49% of respondents planned to spend more this year, up from 40% in 2012. They also found only 10% said they planned to cut their budgets, demonstrating optimism from B2B marketers. The majority of B2B marketing professionals plan to increase their budget, with digital marketing being a major focus. Because customers, clients and leads are online, more and more companies are seeing the need for their business to have a presence online. However, other areas such as direct mail, events, and telemarketing continue to be a focus. When putting a plan in to place for 2013, ask yourself these three questions.

What is the Objective?

Different businesses will have different goals in 2013. While objectives may differ from company to company, there are some common trends worth paying attention to. According to John DiStefano, BtoB research director, demand-gen and customer acquisition are marketers’ primary goals this year. This should be no surprise as every business owner and marketer is looking for ways to connect with new customers. Other goals included building brand awareness and customer retention. Part of that is building a better website, because that could be the first point of contact between your business and customer. BtoB found that 21% of budgets will be geared towards website development this year. Because businesses and
marketers are looking to reach new customers, they need to be where their customers are. This is where budget comes in to play – you want to put budget towards the types of marketing that are helping your business meet its goals most.

What about Budget?

While many nearly half of all B2B marketers plan to spend more this year, each area of their marketing strategy is receiving a different amount of the budgetary resources. Digital marketing will gain the most, with 67% planning to increase such spending, according to the BtoB Online poll, conducted in November, which drew 366 B2B marketer respondents. The world, and its consumers, is moving more towards the digital world when it comes to conducting research, gathering information, and making a purchase. Other areas projected to see increases include social marketing (cited by 56%), events (42%), and direct mail (35%). Social media networks and in-person events allow sales team and marketers to connect with current and potential customers on a more personal level and a personalized experience is what many customers are after. Mobile is one area many B2B marketers are turning their attention. 32% now use mobile in their marketing strategy and 35% of respondents plan to increase their spending on mobile marketing by 36%, however most marketers (68%) are not placing a high emphasis on mobile ads this year.

What is the Impact on Lead Generation?

New goals and a new spending strategy will have an impact on lead generation. As businesses figure where there customers are, dedicate more of their budget to those areas, and create more tailored content, it’s likely their lead generation efforts will yield a greater ROI. Rishi Dave, executive director-digital marketing at Dell Inc., explains “We have increasingly found that our customers want to consume content—which is the center of b2b marketing—in multiple formats beyond just the computer, whether it’s tablets or phones.” According to the B2B Online report, more than 1 in 5 use mobile apps as part of mobile strategy. As businesses gear their content and budget more towards where they are seeing the greatest ROI, their lead generation numbers will improve. Because B2B marketers are increasing their digital marketing spend, chances are their lead generation via digital marketing channels is going to increase. Where you change your spending is where you are most likely to see a change in lead generation.

B2B marketers are looking at 2013 with a positive view. Many are increasing their budgets and focusing on the digital aspect of their business. When it comes to resource allocation this year, make sure you’re paying attention to where trends are taking place, from new social networks, to whether your business is performing better via one channel versus another. B2B businesses are trying to reach their customers in those places where communication lines are better and where content is being sought. The key takeaway: be where your customers are.

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As the holidays and the end of 2012 approach, gearing up your marketing strategies for 2013 is important. Coming up with a 2103 marketing strategy is something many B2B businesses are focusing on in order to make next year better than this one. Content marketing is a strategy your B2B business is probably using, but are you on the right track as the year comes to a close? New studies indicate B2B businesses are focusing more on content marketing. In this second post in our two-part series on content marketing, we share are a few things to keep in mind as you rev up your marketing engine for the New Year.

Budgeting Resources

In the study “B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America,” conducted by Marketing Profs and CMI (Content Marketing Institute), 54% of the B2B marketers polled plan to increase their spending on content marketing over the next 12 months. However, financial spending isn’t the only type of budgeting that needs to be considered as you get ready for 2013.

• Time: Using all the different channels to distribute content, such as a social media and trade shows  content marketing requires an investment in time. B2B businesses will have to budget their time for content marketing development and distribution.
• Money: The average amount of marketing budget spent on B2B content marketing is 33%, up from 26% in 2011. This indicates more budget will be allocated towards content marketing in 2013 as well.

As a tip, make sure your business is well-staffed and has the capital to support your content marketing strategy. While producing enough content may be a challenge, with the right content marketing team, you can make your goals. Keep in mind the production isn’t the only aspect of content marketing that you need to budget for; successful distribution across multiple platforms is key to an effective content marketing strategy.

Keeping Content Fresh

As mentioned in our first blog post about B2B content marketers, producing fresh content on a consistent basis is a challenge. The three biggest challenges B2B content marketers reported in the MarketingProfs and CMI study were producing enough content, producing engaging content and producing a variety of content. 64% of B2B content marketers say they are challenged with producing enough content and only 36% believe they are effective at content marketing. Here are a few tips on choosing and changing up your topics.

• Provide your take on a trend. There is always something new on social media and popular blogs, from TV news shows to celeb meltdowns. Tie the trending topic to your business, clients or industry.
• Rework old content. Take an old blog post and turn it into a video; or, provide a new take on older, popular-at-the-time topic to create an innovative article or podcast. You’ll be able to extend the shelf-life of what’s already produced.
• Combine content. Take what you have to write about and combine it with what you want to write about. Taking something you are particularly passionate about and relating it to your business or blog makes things much more innovative.
• Company content. Whether it is an expert advice article or a company update column, tap into your company’s staff and business updates as inspiration. Don’t give away all your strategies, but use what you know to solve problems readers may have that relate to your business.

Distributing Content

In order to ensure you’re distributing the right content on the right platforms, pay attention to where your audience is and the benefits your business can gain from sharing content on each of the various social networks. While SlideShare and Pinterest are some of the more popular up-and-coming social sites used in distribution, we’ll tap into the benefits of the top 5 social channels used by B2B marketers.

• LinkedIn: Like a business directory, LinkedIn offers a large B2B audience and positions your company as a credible source while expanding business contacts. You can share articles, photos/graphics, audio recordings and presentations to reach a wide range of people directly.
• Twitter: You can promote your content with links while expanding your customer reach. Twitter can also be used as a network for sharing answers to common customer service questions.
• Facebook: Share photos/graphics, video, text and links to reach a large, global user base. You can even promote your content to target audiences.
• YouTube: Upload videos that feature support, expert advice, etc. to entertain and teach your customers. YouTube helps your business engage with users, extend the shelf-life of events and places your brand and business in the spotlight.
• Google+: With Google placing more emphasis on authorship for SEO, Google+ is an important network. You can engage with prospects while sharing text, photos/graphics, video and audio, and PDF presentations.

For B2B businesses, content marketing is a great way to earn leads. With compelling content, strategic distribution of the right content on the right platforms, and budgeting broken down to meet your marketing team’s needs, businesses can be more successful in content marketing for 2013 than they were in 2012.

How is your business prepping for content marketing in 2013?

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When phone lines go down, social media is one outlet many can turn to. As Hurricane Sandy hits the East Coast this week or earthquakes rock the West, social media and other marketing channels can prove invaluable. While most marketers handle customer crises, such as a dissatisfied customer or negative online review, with a strategic plan of approach, Mother Nature’s events are not always as easy to manage. Your B2B business can make the most of its marketing team during a hurricane by bracing for the storm with yet another plan, one that easily adapts to change. Marketing during a hurricane isn’t about your product, it’s about your people and the people affected.

Email Marketing

If you’re looking for something to reach all your readers and customers on a more regular basis than blogging, but work with something that requires less time than social media maintenance, consider your e-mail marketing database. You can reach a wide spread of people who may not be on social media or active blog readers. Here are a few ways you can use your email database during Hurricane Sandy.

• Use your newsletter lists. Many B2B businesses have newsletters. Send out a newsletter that provides information on natural disaster assistance and recovery. Keep the focus on the hurricane or natural event at hand first and tie in your business second.
• Rework your email blast. When phone lines are down, people may turn to their email. Marketers always want timed email campaigns to be valuable and provide relevant information. Even in a moment of crisis, this should be your aim. Make sure you are providing current news updates related to your industry, geographical location and business as well as resources others can turn to for help.

Social Media

Social media provides users with the latest information on trending topics. Whether that’s SEO, a celebrity or Hurricane Sandy, people turn to their social networks for the most up-to-date reports. You can quickly communicate with your employees and customers by being tuned into your social media networks. Make sure you’re accurate, responsible and prompt to respond. Here are a few steps you can take to make sure that happens.

• Be proactive. When you’re expecting a storm that could derail production or phone communications, make sure your followers and employees know what your business is doing in the event that happens.
• Be consistent. Provide your fans and followers with consistent updates to avoid confusion and keep the communication lines open.
• Be compassionate and keep calm. The information you share needs to be accurate and up-to-date. Your followers and fans want to be informed, so your business needs to be too – especially when it comes to the areas hit hardest.

Blogging

While social media may be a great resource for staying current with the latest news relating to Hurricane Sandy in real time, blogging is another channel your business can turn to. If you don’t have the time or opportunity to closely monitor social media, blogging is one area your business could turn to. A blog post before, during and after a storm can keep customers informed without the effort required by social media.

• Before: When you are expecting a hurricane or other event that will impair the abilities of your business, writing a blog post about the realistic expectations, i.e. shipping delays, back orders, etc., can allow customers with orders pending to know what to expect. Even if you’re business won’t be hit, provide links to sites and resources others can turn to if affected.
• During: This is an opportunity for your business to provide updates about the natural disaster, your business, and, again, resources those who are hit can turn to. Keep calm and provide information for how your business is managing with current conditions. Remain positive!
• After: The first blog post after a storm should make note of how your business plans to pick up operations now that the dust has settled. While each business and industry will have to handle the situation differently, this post should be a positive and informational read, much like the rest of your natural disaster communications.

Marketing is often on the front lines and may be used to dealing in damage control online. However, using social media, your business blog, and email marketing database during Hurricane Sandy or an earthquake isn’t something to take lightly. You don’t want to lose your business or compassion. Balance the business and compassion for those being hit when your turn to a company account during a natural disaster. Don’t forget, there are useful organizations to follow before, during and after a natural disaster for breaking news and alerts as well as tips for staying safe. You may also want to tune into the channels your local newspaper, news station or government agencies are using.

How does your marketing team handle hurricanes?

Resources:

American Red Cross, FEMA.gov, NOAA.gov, National Hurricane Center

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Business-to-consumer marketers are using social media as part of their online marketing strategy and have found these channels as a way of cultivating customer engagement. What about B2B marketers and social media? Facebook and Twitter have proven to be effective mediums for B2C businesses, but the platforms that have the greatest demand and are the most used in B2B are not the same. In a 2012 social media study of B2B marketing, marketers were asked to choose the one most important method that they use for their social outreach (see chart). LinkedIn, Facebook, blogging, Twitter and YouTube are the top social networks for B2B.

How Social Media Can Help Your B2B Business

In a study conducted by Social Media Examiner of over 1,900 B2B marketers, results indicate that while B2B marketers are finding success in their social media efforts, they still see room for improvement. Whether you’re a large company or  starting a small business, here are a few statistics that show why you should be using social media.

• Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media.
• 53% of B2B marketers found social media helped them develop a loyal fan base.
• Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts

How to Use Different Social Media Platforms

Each social media channel is different and your approach to each should reflect that. Whether you are focused on engagement or generating leads, utilize each channel with specific goals in mind and a plan of how to meet those goals with the capabilities of the social media platform you’re using. We’ll cover the most successful methods of B2B marketers for the top 3 networks they’re using.

Facebook

Facebook isn’t just a channel for posting products and recent updates from your business. Facebook is more personal and B2B marketers are picking up on this. Reach out to those interested in what your business offers. When using Facebook, you want to:

• Create an online community that encourages conversation. Ask customers and businesses what their take is on certain issues, trending topics, your products. You can answer questions and ask others to do the same for two-way dialogue.
• Use photos and videos. You can show off products without being pushy and market upcoming events. Photos and videos make your page more dynamic and interesting. Both forms of media are also easy for fans to share.
• Use calls to action. If you can offer a free trial, having a call to action that encourages other businesses or clients to try the product is a good idea. Even if you can’t, include a call to action that leads a fan down the conversion funnel.

Blogging

Having a company blog is great for link building and SEO efforts, but guest blogs and tracking of comments are just as beneficial for B2B marketers. Whether you’re writing for your own blog, responding to a comment or creating a guest article, you should try to:

• Become a thought leader and gain credibility. Write about trending topics and make sure content documented, informative, and interesting. You can gain market insight and credibility in your industry.
• Increase “shareability” of your site. Each post should target a specific audience for engagement and encourage users to share the content across their social media channels as well as visit other areas of your site.
• Improve your site’s performance on search engines. Whether its anchor links, “strong words,” or long URLs in a comment on another site, SEO should be on your mind. SEO marketing is one of the main reasons businesses blog.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a way for B2B marketers to connect with other businesses in your industry and generate leads. You can also gain industry insight and credibility. When you’re logged into LinkedIn as a business, you should aim to:

• Actively search and connect with various people and organizations. Instead of a cold call to a random company representative, you can immediately connect with the person you’re aiming to reach out to. Your lead generation efforts are now much easier.
• Ask for recommendations from previous and current clients. New, or potential, clients who see these will gain insight into your business, how it operates, and who works behind the scenes.

When it comes to B2B marketing and social media, not using the platforms is a huge disadvantage. You can generate leads, cultivate an online community, and directly interact with customers. When done right, your business will generate more impressions and greater credibility in your industry.

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Even though some individuals think social media is a fad that will one day be a thing of the past, others have jumped on the social media bandwagon, looking to ride it as far as possible.

As a B2B marketer, what role has social media played in your marketing efforts over the first half of this year and in recent years?

According to a recent poll from software provider Satmetrix, most B2B companies still fail to track their social media activity, in effect ignoring customers that interact with brand pages online.

The poll of nearly 1,200 worldwide professionals points out that 51 percent of B2B companies actually have no social media tracking at their businesses, in comparison to 22 percent of their B2C counterparts.

Also noted in the survey was that 69 percent of B2B respondents actually turned a deaf ear to customers that offered feedback through social media due to the fact they had no system in place in order to offer a response.

With those businesses measuring effectiveness of social media, a mere four percent undertook sentiment analysis, while most (56 percent) resorted to counted remarks and followers, suggesting measurement techniques prove to be lacking when it comes to sophistication.

According to a spokesperson for Satmetrix, “While 77 percent of consumers post about products, 67 percent of businesses have no means of measuring what is being said and less than one in 20 have any insight into the sentiment of what is being said. This is both a huge threat and a massive lost opportunity.”

As a B2B marketer, ask yourself:

• What is your company’s strategy towards social media?
• What could you do better with social media that you are not currently using?
• What feedback have you gotten from customers regarding your social media efforts?
• What allocation of time and resources does your company put toward social media?

In the event your B2B marketing efforts have not involved a fair amount of social media, do you fully understand what you are missing out on?

In many cases, you could be coming across as anti-social.

Photo credit: buzzom.com

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