—42 Tips to Make B2B Social Media Work for You
As members of the C-Suite, our social skills are constantly at work. Even those hours spent waiting at airport lounges keep us busy on the phone, and we never know who we might bump into on a flight. Despite this “always on” state, our social skills only get better, not worse; well for most of us at least. On the other hand, when it comes to social media, quality seems to slide as the activity level goes up.
Can you imagine yourself walking into a cocktail evening talking utterly irrelevant things that nobody is listening to. It doesn’t happen (unless you are drunk!), right? And yet, how often do our company blogs, Facebook updates, Tweets and other social media content pieces spew meaningless, out of context stuff that no one cares about? Far too often, I’m afraid, and for many of us. We simply run out of content ideas and because we don’t want to shut up for fear of being forgotten too easily, we keep trying to “socialize”. If, for one moment, we stopped to think about how to really be “social” instead of thinking about how to utilize every media channel available, our relevancy quotient might get a significant boost.
I’m not saying it’s easy; it isn’t. But here is a handy cheat sheet that you can reference every now and then to keep your social media activities on track. Remember that “Context is the new King”. (Click here to Tweet this!)
Think About the Social, Not About the Media
—42 Things to Remember
- Plan your social media calendar, create a strategy and adapt as you go along to always remain relevant.
- Do not jump in with both feet first. Test the waters, learn what works, monitor, measure and refine your online social skills.
- Learn from others’ mistakes. There are plenty to study and learn from!
- Understand that social media is two-way; it has to be interactive; a mix of push and pull.
- Evaluate your aims and objectives – ROI, brand building, relationships, leads, sales, etc.
- Involve sales, marketing, R&D, even the shop floor with your social media campaigns. Your own staff can be your biggest social mouthpiece.
- Do not over-extend your resources. A measured approach will yield better, more consistent results.
- Decide what ‘voice’ your social media persona needs to best represent your company and communicate with your audience.
- A scattergun approach will not work. Don’t channel hop. Increase as you can and not simply because it seems like a good idea or because everyone else is doing it.
- Remember: If an idea is worth doing, it is only worth doing well. If you are not well prepared and confident of doing a good job, wait until you are.
- Social media can very quickly and easily become a time sink. Have the resources ready to cope with this FACT.
- Employees can leave; don’t let them take your social media success with them.
- Social media is about conversation, discussion, engagement, interactivity, sharing, and relationship building. It is a poor broadcast medium, so don’t try to use it as one.
- It might be abbreviated to #SoMe, but it is so definitely NOT about you!
- Social media is not all new. Nor is it all traditional. Build a team with experience across ages and disciplines, and a willingness to adapt while being consistent.
- Know where to find your target audience and where they expect to find your company.
- Be ready to integrate and act across a wide variety of channels – images, video, text, chat, networks, even social bookmarks. And not to forget, IRL (in real life) too!
- Mix and match messages to audience. Whatever you do, don’t be boring! Or you’ll be like that “drone” people run from at a party!
- Remember, the human brain processes images and graphics better than text. Get visual.
- Be flexible and cautious. Today’s hot trending tool or topic can be tomorrow’s wasteland or lost data.
- Learn the lingo and the ‘netiquette’ for every social channel you use.
- Find the right tools for the job and keep records of all account details and tools used.
- Internal communication between all your teams will boost your social media strategy beyond just a small dedicated team.
- Do not pay for friends or followers. Ever. Just think how tragic it is if you ever have to pay guests to come to your party. It’s the same thing!
- Automate what you can. Think If This Then That. What your should NEVER automate, because you can’t, is emotion. That is the real power behind social communication. It’s what gets your audience engaged.
- Engage. Daily, hourly, regularly. Even in your sleep (buffer)!
- Monitor constantly, but only what matters. That includes your competition.
- Analytics are crucial. Learn to understand what the data is telling you.
- Is it working? Are you achieving your targets? If not, try a new tack.
- It is not about how many friends or followers you have. Ten loyal followers who buy and share are better than hundreds who don’t.
- Share. Be generous with your ReTweets and links to third party information.
- Find content to interest your audience and complement your own, in-house creations.
- Are you experts at what you do? Don’t tell everyone; show them by helping solve real problems.
- Try, try and try again. What worked once may not work again. What did not work before may work now.
- Build relationships with your audience. Know their business. And their lives. Know what keeps them up at night and help them find peace of mind.
- Make sure your social accounts are included everywhere you advertise, online and offline.
- Running an ad in print? Include your social sharing details, and get creative. Try augmented reality and QR codes to bring your social presence to life.
- Develop your key marketing messages to fit in 140 characters or less. Not because you can then use them on Twitter, but because you will really need to think hard and clear to do this exercise.
- Email is not dead. Far from it! Tie your social media strategies tightly to that email list and/or newsletter.
- Don’t get lost in ROI metrics on a $ for $ basis. Social media pays in other ways e.g. new, long-term relationships as well as brand respect and loyalty.
- Enjoy the diverse roads social media may take your team down. Don’t rap knuckles for 3 tweets about a follower’s dog. It makes your company personable.
- Don’t seek out viral – it comes of its own accord. Be patient and keep the quality consistent.
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