Business owners or managers who think of social media networks as a waste of time are missing a huge potential profit in terms of B2B sales. After all, according to BtoB Magazine, social media is second only to strong keyword content in terms of organic searching results online.
In addition, B2B marketers call websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as an important business tool for lead generation and the chance to “go viral” online. Of those three websites, however, LinkedIn results in the most lead generation…but less than half of companies surveyed admitted to using LinkedIn for lead generation.
What’s more, approximately 75 percent of B2B clients admitted that they were more likely to purchase from a company that have a presence on social media and almost 95 percent said that social media enhanced a company’s image.
It seems clear that social media is no longer an entertainment tool but a business one as well. In fact, approximately 75 percent of B2B purchasers surveyed expect to use social media in the future.
Get Started
Companies that do not yet have a social networking presence need to get busy. Establish a person within the company to be responsible for social media sites or even create a new position, as this task can take quite some time on a regular basis.
Companies that do not yet have a social networking presence need to get busy. Establish a person within the company to be responsible for social media sites or even create a new position, as this task can take quite some time on a regular basis.
Task that person to set up a business profile on each social networking page and then spread the word to customers and other business contacts. Be sure to download the buttons from each social media network site onto your business website (most of the social media sites have a “FAQ” or “Help” section that details how to do this).
Keep Going
However, simply setting up a profile is not enough. Spend time searching for B2B contacts on each site and invite them to “Follow”, “Like” or “Connect” online.
However, simply setting up a profile is not enough. Spend time searching for B2B contacts on each site and invite them to “Follow”, “Like” or “Connect” online.
In addition, the social media manager should spend some time daily putting out new posts, tweets and comments. Join B2B groups on LinkedIn and stay active in the online communities. Encourage the upper management in your company to create an associated social networking page or comment, post or tweet on the company page to help increase visibility and credibility.
While some of this may sound silly, the fact is that social media networking is here to stay, at least for now, and ignoring it is to ignore an enormous B2B potential.
Remember that business owners or managers who do not personally have the time to do the daily work themselves, identify or hire a staff person to perform this task and to stay active on the social media networks on behalf of the company.
Put in the time and effort and watch your business grow and contact list expand as a result.
Put in the time and effort and watch your business grow and contact list expand as a result.
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