Part I: Is Social Media an Ingredient in your Marketing Mix?

Businesses are baking up new ideas on ways to sugar coat their marketing plans, to stir up with the competition, sprinkle in what will work but take out what didn’t, measure and identify goals, roll with new fresh ideas, and design audience based strategies that will define their marketing success. If one of the key ingredients in your marketing plan does not consist of building relationships and brand awareness on social networking platforms, then your B2B business is missing out on an abundance of opportunity to connect with present and future clients. Social media is like the chocolate chip to the cookie, the walnut to the brownie, your B2B marketing plan is lacking and un-unique without it.

Some consider social media sites irrelevant and less impactful marketing tools for B2B companies to utilize. They don’t understand or have the time to learn how to develop brand visibility on the latest social networking platform. Well, they need to make the time! Determining which site if not all social media sites to be active on in today’s digital generation is vital for your companies marketing success. According to the research company Schonfeld & Associates “Business IS social, 2013 promises to be a year of continuing recovery in ad spending. Money spent in nurturing a social media presence provides two-way communication with customers, helping to build and maintain brand loyalty.”

Take a look at these statistics!

• 60% of B2B marketers have implemented a social media strategy, or will shortly.
• 69% of B2B marketers are shifting their budgets toward social media.
• 66% of B2B companies use social networks in their marketing mix.
• 90% of B2B companies actively participate on Facebook.
• 41% of B2B companies are acquiring customers through Facebook.
• 53% of B2B companies actively participate on Twitter.

You might ask yourself what’s the difference between the multiple social media sites? Or how will the sites assist in getting your product or service in front of the faces of B2B customers? The social media sites Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, Pinterest and Google+ are all currently driving the most traffic and buzz in the marketplace and these are the sites to be present on.

Reasons why Twitter must be added to your marketing plan:

1. You’re interested in learning about your customers and what they’re interested in.
2. You either need to catch, keep up or stay ahead of your competition.
3. You are willing to share some of what you know with your customers and industry to help improve business.

Reasons why Twitter is rewarding:

1. Twitter will greatly expand your network of strategic partners, industry influencers, prospects, qualified vendors, research and reference sources and professional friendships.
2. Twitter is measurable – I mean truly measurable and impossible to ignore – an increase of inbound website traffic that you will convert into leads, and from leads into new business.
3. Twitter opens up the door of information and provides your company with relevant industry news and facts that you might have been left in the dark about previously being on Twitter

Reasons why Facebook must be added to your marketing plan:

1. You want to build relationships with prospects or customers.
2. You want happy customers to engage and connect in an ongoing community to talk about your brand.
3. You want to share news, new product info, or highlights that are occurring inside your company with your clients.

Reasons why Facebook is rewarding:

1. Allows you to understand the challenges potential customers face.
2. Creates opportunities for fans to come together and share positive experiences with each other and highlight success stories on the page about your company.
3. Posting cross-promotion content like promotional materials or industry events will increase customer and prospect visibility. Connecting a blog feed to your Facebook page will amplify the blogs content reach.

Reasons why LinkedIn must be added to your marketing plan:

1. 24 % of all visitors from LinkedIn to a B2B website are enterprise visitors. (leads)
2. Nearly 45% of leads coming to a website through LinkedIn are first time visitors.
3. Visitors to your LinkedIn company page are most likely to spend more than 10 minutes on your website.

Reasons why LinkedIn is rewarding:

1. Having a LinkedIn company page with third party recommendations on it will go a long way in luring your prospects to your site.
2. LinkedIn has emerged as one of the best places online for finding good professionals and the shift we see in intent could be a reflection of the same trend.
3. Based on the intent of visitors measured by LeadFormix, the most relevant traffic for a company comes from its LinkedIn employee profiles and participation in groups. These visitors are interested in the company details, product offerings and in attending webinars, which are highly correlated with a potential buyer’s intent.

In Part I of this two part series I’ve provided you with a few key ingredients for the ‘social media marketing’ recipe. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most popular and influential platforms on the web today, allowing businesses to offer customers a taste of their brands. With the continuing popularity of social media there have been other platforms operating in unique ways, altering the way we connect to customers online. We’ll take a peek into the significance of mixing up your marketing plan with YouTube, Pinterest and Google+ next!