Social Media Management - Five Top Tips for New Starters

Many years ago, the question on the proverbial lips of many B2B businesses was, ‘do we need a website?’ Today that question has become, ‘do we need a social media presence?’ and an increasing number of businesses are answering in the affirmative.

But before you rush ahead to implement your social media management strategy and start socialising with your clients, there are a few things you should consider.

Which social network?  

At the very start you must decide which social networks best suit your business’s needs and target market profile.

Twitter is a micro blogging platform allowing you 140 characters for each post, which means you need to be concise. It is great for growing your network and can be used to both amplify your own content and link to other content that you believe your followers will find useful and compelling. Twitter also enables you to track whatever is being said about your company.

Here is a fantastic resource from Hubspot to help you get started with Twitter

Facebook brand pages are popular with consumers, and it seems with some professionals too. For example, according to a social media consumption survey by IDG, almost 30% of B2B tech buyers use Facebook on a daily basis.

You can learn how to get started with Facebook for business from this Hubspot resource

LinkedIn is a much more professional option, ideal for B2B service providers. You probably have a personal LinkedIn profile but are you leveraging this incredibly powerful network to generate leads for your business? Don’t know how? Well find out below.

You can download this eBook from Hubspot directly and learn how.

Google+’s brand pages are well worth a look, as the fledgling social network has many unique features that may prove useful such as video conferencing and integration with Google’s search engine and other services.

You can discover how to set up a Google + business page in this fine post from Hubspot. 

Pinterest you will no doubt have picked up on the buzz around Pinterest and may wonder what on earth another social media network  might do for your business. Well over 3 million  users now use it and many marketers have found ways of making it work.

Find out how to set your business up in Pinterest by following this link and downloading the eBook from Hubspot.

What image do you want to project?

Projecting the right image is just as important for B2B companies as it is for B2C’s. Everything you do with your social media management will have a bearing on how your company is perceived by potential clients, from the words you write and any pictures or graphics that accompany them, to how frequently you update your account.

The most successful social marketers spend a good deal of time and thought designing and crafting their image before turning to the computer keyboard.

What are your social goals?  

With social media management it’s a good idea to start with very specific goals in mind that you can constantly refer to in order to stay on track. Are you aiming for a certain number of additional conversions? A set quantity of page views? X number of ‘likes’ or instances of content sharing?

How will you convert brand fans into paying customers?  

It’s important to remember that your end goal with social media management is to gain new clients and make more sales. However, this will not happen immediately, and out-and-out sales copy is a social media faux-pas.  

The key is to create social content that is genuinely useful and even entertaining, so that when one of your B2B followers has a requirement that you can handle, you are top of mind..

How will social media complement your other marketing strategies?  

One of the most important things is that you do not undertake social media marketing in a vacuum. At all times you should be alert to ways in which you can use one marketing channel to benefit your efforts in another.  For example, you could use your electronic newsletters to subtly promote your social media brand page, and vice versa.

Find out how social media can fit into your overall content marketing strategy by downloading this White Paper.