What criteria guide your approach to social media? With few exceptions, your marketing strategy can’t be called comprehensive unless at least one social media platform is in the mix. It’s a highly effective tool and not only that— using social media doesn’t cost money (it does require time) and it has the power to amplify your traditional marketing tactics by re-posting text, audio and image content onto your chosen platforms. But like all marketing initiatives, social media requires thought and planning. To make success possible you must develop a credible strategy, starting with choosing (maybe three or four?) objectives you’d like to achieve.

Along with your objectives, you’ll also want to be mindful that certain audiences have an affinity for certain platforms and certain platforms are more suitable for some types of products or services and not so much for others. Moreover, it makes sense to assess the amount of time you can reasonably expect to devote to your social media updates, because fresh and relevant content are key. It will be much more favorable to establish a presence on one or two platforms and make it all pop with engaging and timely content instead of wading into multiple platforms on which you post only sporadically.

Once you launch your campaign, it’s advisable to continually monitor your performance analytics and watch for feedback. Be certain to respond quickly to customer service needs or comments and second, you want to measure visitor response to your content. Both metrics can inform your content topics, plus encourage customer engagement and feelings of loyalty. Focus your efforts where they’ll reap the greatest return on investment (ROI).

Finally, social media audiences on every platform are viewing content creators with increasing skepticism. Content consumers now demand authenticity from the influencers and brands they follow. Be genuine in your approach to social media (and all) marketing so that you’ll earn the trust, respect, loyalty—and business!— of your target audience. Below are common drivers of B2B social media objectives:

• Website traffic
• Brand awareness
• Lead generation
• PR mentions

Strategy

Devise an overall strategy that keeps your social media presence on-message and active. Establish your brand on platforms whose audience demographics and content style best showcases the products or services you promote. Every few months, you might want to color outside the lines, maybe with a fun collaboration with a complementary (and never competing) brand, a contest, or a (non-controversial) social or health awareness initiative that can stimulate positive customer engagement and even expand your audience.

Brand identity

A strong brand identity provides a consistent, dependable and ultimately reassuring experience for your social media audience. By establishing a recognizable brand identity, (you and) your business will be positioned to cultivate a loyal following that remains engaged across your selected platforms. Your unique brand voice, image style and relatable, consistent messaging across all social media platforms will enhance your authenticity and build the respect and trust of your audience.

Relevant content

Focus on creating meaningful and high quality content that resonates with your target audience. Authentic and relevant content helps the audience feel connected to your brand, encouraging engagement and promoting brand loyalty. 

Personal communication

Facilitating direct communication between you/ the brand and your target audience is the great advantage of social media. The communication is personal and unfiltered, allowing you to learn a great deal about how those who do business with you feel about doing business with you. Social media helps you learn fast about what works and what doesn’t, giving you the luxury of responding personally and quickly and making a timely course correction if necessary.

Focus On Your Audience/ Build A Community

Social media isn’t just a method that lets you speak to your audience in a monologue that promotes your business. It’s about building a community. When you introduce practices that enable a community—meaningful content, regular updates, responding to questions, complaints and compliments and keeping it authentic (real) you will over time build and sustain an engaged audience that’s truly interested in your brand (and you).

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Jean Arthur in Easy Living, written by Preston Sturges. Paramount Pictures (1937)