So you bought into social media as a B2B demand generation channel. You built your company Facebook page, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and you sat back and waited for the prospects to bang down your door. Alas, your name may be out on the net more than ever before but you’re not getting the results you’d hoped for. What went wrong?
No doubt the scope of the Internet holds thousands of potential leads but you’ve got to be smart to find them. Ask these 5 questions to determine whether you’re covering all your social media bases and you’ll uncover the “social media-demand generation” mystery:
1. Am I Utilizing My Keywords?
Keyword optimization is the vital link to the chain of social media connection. Your keywords are the unique footprints prospects can follow to your brand.
Be sure you’re incorporating your keywords into all your content. However, go another step further and determine if the keywords you’ve chosen are the best to draw people to your business.
2. Am I Over/Under Sharing?
Give us too much information and we might want to turn away. Give us too little and we may lose interest. There is a fine balance between the two. The average social media activity of Forbes 100 companies in 2010 showed a consistent weekly effort (InsideView). Take some inspiration from these major players and try your sharing in these combinations:
- Post between 3-4 times weekly on Facebook
- Tweet 25-30 times per week
- Update your blog 7 times monthly
- Upload 5-10 videos per month
Remember, keep an active presence so followers are interested (not inundated) by the content you share.
3. What’s The Best Timing For My Content?
You wouldn’t pop over to your neighbor’s house at 3 in the morning and you shouldn’t be updating your social media at that time either. Your posts, shares and tweets should fit into the rhythm of your followers’ days.
Start the day with your blog updates on your website or RSS feed before 10 a.m. This gives followers a fresh look at your content and beats all the noise they’ll hear throughout the day.
Your Facebook posts can be posted midmorning, midafternoon and evening. However, morning posts are best as people often check in to get updated earlier in the day.
Share your tweets throughout the day. Be sure to stay on top of articles and content that you find interesting that can be retweeted.
4. Who Do I Really Want To Reach?
Don’t waste the impact of your content on audiences who aren’t interested. Determine who makes up your target market and then mold your content to do these 4 things:
- Educate them on your industry and products
- Inform them about new trends and industry updates
- Find out what needs they have
- Find solutions to their problems
Remember, your job is to build a relationship with your prospects. People are more motivated to buy from sources they know and trust, so the better you understand your audience, the more likely you’ll be to establish a credible presence.
5. Have I Tapped All Potential Channels?
If you’ve only leveraged the big four (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube) then you’re most likely giving your marketing efforts short shrift. The Internet is loaded with niche sites where the people you really want to reach are hanging out.
Try browsing sites using various keywords. This will not only help you broaden your scope of channels, it will also give you a different perspective on the keywords you should be using that you haven’t considered in the past.
It’s easy to get lost in the vastness of the Internet. While you may be eager to share your message with everyone, remember, it’s the buyer looking for your product whom you most want to reach. Don’t waste your time with people looking for orange juice when you own an apple orchard.
Continue to evolve your demand generation efforts by downloading “Demand Generation, Marketo’s Secret Sauce”.
