Before you start with your social media marketing campaign, it is an absolute must that you know which social media channels you will be using in your digital marketing strategy. Even though there’s hundreds of social media channels to choose from, each one with its own limitations and benefits, the general consensus is that LinkedIn, blogging, Twitter, and Facebook is the most popular choices for marketing on this medium.
LinkedIn is a professional social media channel that you can use if you would like to grow your business network online. LinkedIn can be used for lead generation, targeted web traffic, recruitment and building business relationships. Although you might think that you only need LinkedIn in your strategy, the other popular social media channels also have advantages. Here’s a couple of tips on why you should also include the other channels in your social media initiative.
This is by far the most popular social network with over 750 million users. In my experience, Facebook is the second most widely used social media channel after LinkedIn for B2B marketers. With Facebook in your strategy, you can:
- Quality leads: The same as with LinkedIn, Facebook can help you generate a number of quality leads that can transition into direct sales. When people are looking at your company’s Facebook Fan Page, the chances are very good that they are either looking for more information about you or they are interested in purchasing one of your services or products. By presenting special offers or useful information on your Facebook page, you can convert prospective customers into physical buyers.
- Networking: Facebook is an excellent channel for business communities to come together and engage and share positive experiences.
Many businesses are still very skeptical of Twitter, but this channel is one of my favorites and it does have excellent advantages. Twitter is a great channel if you want to share information regarding your latest blog post, products or any servicec. Here’s a couple of Twitter tips.
- Simplicity: Twitter is very simple to use and it provides marketers with a very wide range of options on how you can use it. Are you interested to find out information right now about a specific event, news item, product or service? Try Twitter Search for instant real-time results.
- Research: Twitter is a great tool for B2B companies to research and share data. It is also widely used to distribute PR material, it facilitates employee interaction, and it can be used as a great customer service platform.
Blogging
Most companies jumping onto the social media bandwagon are using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter as explained above, but did you know that blogging is also an excellent channel to start engaging with targeted audiences? As a digital marketer, if one or more of the following are part of your primary objectives, then use blogging to achieve them. Blogging can be used to:
- Show that your business is human.
- Brand and authority building.
- Customer generation and demand.
- Creation of promotional and educational content.