An important section of your B2B inbound marketing strategy is which social media platforms you should publish your content on. Social media is one of the most effective and efficient ways to get your content to your customers.
A couple decades ago we relied on newspapers ads and television and radio ads to hear the latest news on our favourite companies and brands. Today, the message is instantly delivered. Now, having social media in your inbound strategy may seem simple and straight forward, but there are a few things you should consider before choosing which social media platforms you should using to publish your content on. It’s not effective marketing if you are on every social media platform, you must be selective and consider who your consumer is (refer to your buyer’s persona) as well as if your content will grab the attention of your followers.
Below you will read about the 6 most popular social media platforms to date. While you read these sections think about your buyer persona and consider if they would find your content beneficial on each platform. Keep in mind, you only want to publish your company content on no more than 3 social media platforms. This way you become a professional at posting your content, keeping up wit your followers and staying organized.
Facebook is the most popular out of all of the social media platforms. They had 1.71 billion monthly active followers as of the second quarter of 2016. Facebook is great to have as one of your social media platforms. You are able to publish content, pictures, news, events. This platform is a great way to stay connected with your followers. Content that you publish on Facebook can also be displayed as an ad where you can target your consumer by choosing different characteristics and demographics that pertain to your buyer persona. This allows your content to be aimed at the right consumer instead of just anyone. You should only post a maximum of 2 times per day on Facebook. This is the amount of posts that it takes before followers become tired of the content which you are sharing that day.
Twitter is very common for those who have a message to broadcast and who actually wish to communicate with you. Twitter is wonderful when you want to keep up with trends in your industry and with your customers. By adding hashtags to your posts you are able to direct your message directly with those who share that same interest. With over 313million monthly active users, Twitter has grown into a large social media platform. Keep in mind, it is appropriate to post 3 or more times on Twitter as long as the content is different each time.
LinkedIn has grown into one of the largest social media platforms with over 450 million monthly active users. Having more of a serious and professional tone, this social media platform is great for posting company/industry content and direct it towards those who are interested in the same information. Post at most once a day on LinkedIn in order to keep your audience’s attention on the message you are trying to project. LinkedIn is also great to post job postings for your company. With this being said, recruiting firms and other companies promoting job opportunities will really benefit by having LinkedIn as one of their regular social media platforms.
Google+
Google+ has many users, however not all are active. There are approximately 111 million active users, 6.7 million of which have 50 or more posts total to date. The benefit of using Google+ is that it is Google. This means that the more your post about your company the better search engine optimization your company will receive. It is important to keep up to date with your Google+ posts since they will be displayed in the google search if and when your company is searched. You should post no more than 3 times a day, so not to irritate your followers
This social media platform is great for business’s who have phenomenal images to share along with tips and tricks, products, recipes, and so much more. Companies will reap the benefits of sharing their new product and tips on Pinterest because users get to choose what they see and decide what they engage in. for example, you own a clothing store or line but are only located for purchase online. Pinterest will get the images of your new product line to those who truly are interested in it which will result into more leads.
As most of you are aware, Instagram is predominately a mobile social media app that shares only pictures. Now don’t get me wrong, you can connect content links to your Instagram post, but be sure that your buyer person will respond to such a post. Once again, Instagram is great for business’s who are trying to promote their products, not necessarily their service. Pinterest and Instagram go hand in hand for those who rely mainly on images to grab their target markets attention. Instagram has an astonishing 500 million active followers, as of June 2016, and continues to grow.
Don’t forget, it is very important to constantly analyze your movement on your social media engagement. Be sure that you are connecting with the appropriate target audiences. If you find that the interaction with your followers are decreasing, try changing one thing at a time in order to properly test what the issues are with your posts.
Now that you have learned a bit more about the top 6 social media platforms you should have a better idea of which ones you should use to connect with your audience. Your inbound marketing strategy will flourish with the results you receive from your social media.
THE BRIT AGENCY is a B2B Inbound Marketing Agency providing Inbound Marketing, Inbound Website Design and Inbound Sales services to companies around the world. We're focused on growing website traffic, qualified leads and sales, using the Inbound lead generation and marketing automation process.
THE BRIT AGENCY is a certified Gold Tier Hubspot Partner, a HubSpot COS certified Inbound Website Design Agency, a Shopify eCommerce Partner, and a certified "Google Badged Agency Partner". We have offices in Toronto and Barrie, Canada, and Salisbury, UK.
