Posts Tagged Social Media
Five Tips to Increase Engagement on B2B Social Media Sites
Posted by Rick Pranitis in Social Media on February 21, 2017
Even if your B2B company has been posting to social media sites for some time, it is always a good idea to review your activities to make sure you are getting maximum engagement from your followers. Below are five considerations that can help everyone from the beginner to the seasoned veteran.
- Post at the right time
Make sure you are posting to your social media profiles at a time when your customers and prospects frequent those sites. In most cases you might find that B2B buyers will show up on weekdays from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon, thus making this an optimal time for posting messages. Still, every B2B company has its own target time frame, so make sure you pay attention to when your audience is posting in response to your messages and when traffic increases.
- Add calls to action
You can add calls to action to your individual social media posts to encourage prospects to learn more about what you have to offer. Your posts should give B2B buyers the opportunity to raise their hands and express interest in your products or services. The best way to do that is to make a compelling offer that will drive them to a landing page on your website. Usually they will need to exchange their contact information for the offer. These offers can be a mix of things that generate awareness at the top of the funnel and things that help drive consideration. Sometimes it can also entail telling a prospect why a particular offer is more appealing than something else. In other cases it might involve telling a B2B buyer why the product or service in your offer is so important. Anything that can be used as a call to action will be worthwhile for your marketing plans.
- Keep from being overly personal
While you might have lots of friends that follow your B2B company on your social media profiles, you should treat your page as a business-first spot. You need to avoid posting too much personal information. Focus on posts that are relevant to what your business is doing right now and what it has to offer your customers.
- Take risks
Sometimes you’ve got to take a few risks in order to go places. You might want to take some small risks that will cause your B2B company to look more appealing. Don’t be afraid to post funny videos that are relevant to your customers and prospects. This could be your chance to break out of the “boring B2B” mold. The odds are people will see the human side of your business.
- Get special guests
Consider adopting the idea of the celebrity takeover on your social media profiles. Identify influencers from your industry, or even subject matter experts from within your B2B company. Customers and prospects are more likely to engage with these industry stars during the takeover. There is really no limit to who you can tap for this purpose, and it can even become a regular feature of your social media profiles.
If you follow these reminders for how to post and interact on your social media channels, you will create more engagement with your B2B prospects and customers, especially if you can drive them to your landing pages or website.
This Article was originally posted to the Social Media B2B Blog by Sameer Bhatia on May 12, 2015.
Five Mistakes Every B2B Company is Making on Facebook
Posted by Rick Pranitis in Social Media on February 9, 2017
While LinkedIn is often the preferred platform for B2B social media, Facebook can be the difference in the success of your marketing, if done right.
When it comes to B2B marketing, it’s crucial to find how your goals overlap with the functionality of the platform being used. In the case of Facebook, there are a range of opportunities to flip the traditionally B2C platform in your favor.
Keep reading to find out how to get B2B marketing right on Facebook.
- Not using the Custom Audience feature
You already have a list of contacts built up in your database. Why not put those email addresses to good use and try to find more followers and potential buyers through Facebook? Many B2B businesses miss out on advertising opportunities because they haven’t narrowed down their audience successfully. The Custom Audience feature will help you do this.
The Custom Audiences feature lets you upload your database directly to Facebook. Using Facebook Ads Manager, you can create targeted ads and then send them to your email contacts. Facebook will then match your emailing list against the user accounts currently open. Because so many people use their personal email addresses for social media accounts and shopping accounts, there’s a good chance that your contacts use the same address for Facebook.
You can also reach out to new customers by creating a similar audience to your already existing Custom Audience. This is a great way to find new customers who are demographically similar to your current customers. Remember, not everyone wants to be your customer, so do your best to avoid marketing to those who have no interest in your company.
- Letting posts get too sales-y
Getting people to like your page is one thing; getting them to stick around and interact with your posts is another. Some B2B marketers believe that posting on Facebook isn’t as important or necessary so long as you have those fans, but in reality, your posts say a lot about you as a company.
Your posts need to be engaging while providing industry-related information to your customers. This is how you show them that your company isn’t just about selling products and services. You care about your customers and you care about educating them. By showing them that you know your industry and will provide them with up-to-date information, you’re illustrating your company’s professionalism as well as its superior customer relations.
That’s not to say that you can never post any self-promotional material on Facebook, but remember the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of your content should be useful blogs, articles, infographics, videos and other useful pages from third parties. The remaining 20 percent can be about your own promotions.
Remember this rule when your posting, and your customers will be more likely to interact with your posts. They’ll also appreciate not being bombarded with sales pitches.
- Forgetting to tag or mention people
When you post from your own Facebook account, do you tag people in your posts or mention places that you’ve recently visited? If so, then why aren’t you doing this with your B2B Facebook posts?
Social media is all about creating dialogues and connecting with customers. Tagging well-known industry experts brings them into the conversation and offers readers new perspectives. Tagging your own followers is a great way to interact with customers and make them feel appreciated by your brand. Doing so gives readers more of an incentive to comment on your posts if they think you might answer them back.
Facebook’s tag and mention options allow you to pull people into your conversation and make them feel included. This is a great way to involve your customers and get them talking with you.
For example, a higher education institution might tag a student who was recently nominated for an award in his or her field and offer a hearty congratulation. This gets followers talking and shares the good news with other who might not be aware.
- Focusing on selling rather than generating leads
One of the biggest misconceptions about Facebook marketing is that it’s all about selling, selling, selling. If you’re not generating sales from your Facebook marketing endeavors, then you’re doing something wrong.
The truth is Facebook just isn’t a good marketplace for selling your products and services. Facebook and other social media platforms are about building solid customer relationships and improving your brand. People come to Facebook to talk, not to shop, so if you’re focusing on getting people to buy your products on Facebook, then you may be wasting your time.
Facebook can be one of the most useful tools for generating great leads and nurturing them. By capturing email addresses, you build your database and expand your reach to new customers. Once you have them, you can begin marketing directly to them through Facebook.
As your leads become more invested, you can pass them on to your sales team and turn them from a lead to a valuable customer.
- Ignoring metrics data
Recently, Facebook updated its Ads Manager, giving it a whole new look that was a little overwhelming for some. The main page now gives you a plethora of data telling you how successful your ads are. If you’re ignoring this data, then your campaigns probably won’t improve, and you won’t know what works and what doesn’t.
To help you better manage your budget, Facebook now lists your total spent over the course of the week at the top of the Ads Manager page. Now you can keep better tallies on your expenses and make sure you don’t go over your budget.
There are a number of ways to break down your campaigns, ad sets and ads so you can better see their successes and weak points. Don’t be afraid to click around and pull up new reports. It may be hard to track your ROI through Facebook marketing, but looking at your metrics is a good place to start.
This article was originally posted to the SocialMedia B2B Blog by Michael Bird on December 1, 2015
Three Social Media Best Practices For Small Businesses
Posted by Rick Pranitis in Social Media on February 24, 2016
For small business owners, social media marketing is one of the most underutilized marketing tactics.
How can you say that?
Everyone has or should have a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, and Google Business page. While it is true that most companies have dabbled with social media channels and set up their pages, most small companies pay little or no attention to these low cost and potentially high impact marketing opportunities. Most small company social media accounts are a barren waste land of blank avatars, little to no postings and small followings.
If you are a small business and are looking to kick start your social media efforts, here are 3 best practices to get you started and impact your bottom line this year.
Update Your Profile
Your social media profile is an extension of your business brand. For savvy customers particularly the growing in influence millennial generation, social media channels are one of their first stops in their decision-making process. If you have blank avatars on your Twitter or Facebook pages, or profiles that look like they belong to a different company, you’ve got a problem. When someone checks you out on Facebook, Twitter, Google, or LinkedIn, you want them to know that they are dealing with the same organization. Use the same colors, logos, and similar images as you do with your other marketing collateral, so that it is instantly recognizable.
Also make sure that you use a consistent tone or voice. If your brand is professional, maintain that vibe, changing it up to a youthful and snarky tone will only confuse and potentially alienate your ideal customers. While your business may serve different customers, your marketing should be aimed at your target audience.
Consistency is Key
Arriving at a Twitter account or Facebook page and seeing that the last post was two years ago says something about a business. Unfortunately for many of the small businesses that we come into contact, this is precisely what we encounter. Publishing once in a while is a step in the right direction, but it will not yield the primary results that you are looking for – building and audience and driving targeted traffic to your website.
Determine which social media channels will yield the best results for your business and then work with your team to establish a regular publishing schedule for each channel that you will be working with.
Our friends at Buffer (yes, we are clients) have a great social media posting guide that can help you determine the ideal frequency to post for each social media channel. Regularity, like brand consistency, helps establish a sense of reliability in your audience (a very important trait in a company you’re considering doing business with).
At a minimum if you are just getting started, consider the following schedule.
- Twitter: 3-5 original tweets a day (morning, afternoon, and evening)
- Facebook: 1 post a day (original content or shared, ideally mid-day or early evening)
- LinkedIn: 1-2 posts a week (original content or shared)
Once you have maintained some consistency, you can start to track the impact of your postings and determine the appropriate frequency and timeframes for your posts.
Speak With, Not at Your Audience
Whether its Google, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn the goal of your social media activities is not to close sales. While increased sales can be a by-product of an effectively operated social media strategy, its biggest opportunities lie in creating awareness for your product or service, or maintaining communication with your legions of satisfied customers. It is important for companies to dialogue with their audience and avoid engaging in a one-sided conversation.
Unfortunately, many small companies just starting out with social media make the mistake of making overly salesy posts, or just posting a few pieces of content and never engaging with their audience.
Active engagement is the key!
Participating in group discussions on LinkedIn, or hosting chats on Twitter are just a few of the opportunities to speak with your audience and not at them. What are your followers concerned with? What problems are they struggling with? Are there solutions that you can provide to these issues? Will some of the content that you created answer their questions?
Regardless of the channel, social media offers your brand or company the opportunity to connect with your ideal customers on a personal level. Don’t take it for granted!
This article was originally posted to the Business 2 Community Blog by David Cuevas on February 14, 2016.
Five Things You Should Be Doing In Social Media Marketing In 2016
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on January 12, 2016
Below are five of the top social media efforts that marketing professionals should consider utilizing next year in order to make an impact and better connect with their audiences.
1 – Engage With Bloggers and Social Media Influencers
You’ve likely heard of brands partnering with bloggers and social media influencers or celebrities, and it’s for good reason – it works. According to RhythmOne (formerly Burst Media) marketers made an average of $6.85 in earned media value for every $1 of paid media spent on influencer marketing in 2014. By all estimations, this is only set to continue or even increase. Nielsen has reported that 92% of consumers trust earned media (such as recommendations from friends and family) above all other forms of advertising; and with ad blocking likely to become a larger problem for marketers in 2016, gaining earned media will become exceedingly important.
2 – Start Live Streaming
Whether you’re B2C, B2B, a non-profit or a personality, live streaming is something to try in 2016. Consider these ideas: B2C companies or personalities can show the “behind-the-scenes” perspective or “the face behind the brand” to humanize themselves and forge connections and loyalty. B2B companies can stream valuable information to their current and potential customers by explaining how their offerings can benefit the viewer, or provide tips to help the viewer do their job with better quality, efficiency or results. Live streaming can allow non-profits to pull on heart strings by showing the real time impact they are making or the hard work and dedication of their team. This is just scratching the surface of the many beneficial uses of live streaming for brands. It’s no longer just Meerkat and Periscope (not to mention Google Hangouts) as options either. There are now companies like blab.im and most recently Facebook, proving the growth of live streaming is likely to continue.
3 – Social Media Advertising
Let’s start by being clear those organic social media efforts, such as posting to your brand’s social media channels or engaging in online conversations, is different than paid social media efforts, such as Facebook or Twitter advertising. They are separate practices that both appear on social media channels, but they co-exist and benefit each other in many ways. According to Forrester Consulting, seeing ads on social media channels is the top way social media users find out about new brands, products or services. Since the majority of U.S. adults use social media, this is impactful. eMarketer also shares that between 20-25% of people visit the store or website after seeing a social media ad on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest; and between 14-17% bought the product or service. If you’re not already utilizing this channel, it’s time to develop a social media advertising strategy (and budget) for 2016.
4 – Offer Deals or Promotions
Would you like to develop a larger audience base, gain more customers, and measure conversions from social media in 2016? Treating your social media fans to special offers is a great way to achieve all three. Your loyal customers might connect with your brand on social media because they love you. But eMarketer reports that most people do so because they are interested in buying your product, receiving an incentive (i.e. sweepstakes, discount, or gift card) or to get regular coupons and promotions. Mixing special offers into your content calendar is a way to keep both the brand and consumer happy.
5 – Begin Employee Advocacy Campaigns
Most companies spend a considerable amount of time trying to get external audiences to talk about their brand. But what about activating your internal audiences (i.e. employees)? It’s generally easier and less expensive than other advocacy campaigns, and who better to promote the brand than your own team? As mentioned previously, more people will trust this word-of-mouth marketing (even if coming from an employee) than they will hearing it from the brand itself. Brands such as IBM have succeeded with employee advocacy campaigns and today’s social media managers can get assistance from several platforms that exist solely for this function.
This article was originally posted to the Forbes website by Brent Gleeson on December 17, 2015.
Why No One is Reading Your Email Newsletter
Posted by Rick Pranitis in MARKETING on September 29, 2015
Bombarded by an endless stream of messages every day, decision makers at B2B companies often see a vendor’s email newsletter as useless inbox clutter and immediately delete the message without reading it. Are newsletters a lost cause?
I spoke with Matt Senatore, a research director for Sirius Decisions’ Account-Based Marketing practice, on current best practices and common pitfalls for this tactic. The key point that emerged from our discussion: Although overall spending on email marketing has decreased in recent years, newsletters still serve a variety of valuable purposes and can help influence purchase decisions if properly crafted.
“We’re seeing a trend of less reliance – and spending – on newsletters and email in general for outbound net new demand creation,” Matt said. “However, newsletters provide good opportunity to stay engaged and continue the dialogue with prospects already in the database that are being nurtured – and also with existing customers.”
The first step to continuing that dialogue is getting the recipient to open that newsletter message and engage with it. Here are some of the most common mistakes that land b-to-b email newsletters in the trash:
- Boring content. “You need to have an authentic voice that breaks through the clutter – that is critical,” Matt said. To grab readers’ attention with the subject line or top-level content, frame a thought as an interactive question (e.g. “What Do You Think of…”), mention a timely industry event or hot topic, or promise bite-sized servings of useful information (e.g. “Three Tips to…”). Images, statistics and info-graphics can liven up the body of the message. You should also include clear calls to action and integrate keywords in short snippets that link to landing pages on the Web site.
- Blatant sales pitches. At all points in the customer lifecycle, newsletter content must strike a balance between encouraging interest in the organization’s offerings and not appearing to be an aggressive advertisement. Customers who have recently purchased the offering may be especially turned off by pushy messaging. Instead, offer tips on how to get up to speed and best utilize the new solution. As the customer nears a potential point of repurchase or additional buying, email newsletters can highlight how the organization can support their needs and continue to maximize their benefits from the offering.
- One-size-fits-all messages. Build newsletter content to accommodate recipients’ customer lifecycle stages, personas, and stated preferences and interests. Best practice companies provide recipients with an easy-to-use portal for modifying their newsletter preferences and settings (e.g. frequency, types of content). Profile data can be linked to the contact’s record in the sales force automation system and seamlessly cross-populated and updated. Organizations also must keep in mind the devices on which their recipients most often read the newsletter, optimizing content and presentation for each platform.
- Untested or static strategy. Identifying optimal email subject lines using basic A/B testing is fairly common practice. But delivery times, message layout, color schemes, subtle phrasing changes and a multitude of other variables can – and should – be measured, refined and measured again. Organizations can also use heat maps to display relative click rates for text in different regions of the message.
This article was originally posted to the Sirius Decisions Blog by Jessica Lillian on March 14, 2014.
Social Selling Isn’t Just “a” Thing – It’s “the” Thing
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on April 15, 2015
You can’t read a sales- or marketing-related blog without seeing something about social selling. There are tips and techniques, camps and courses, and even social selling consultants, both real and fake.
But as this new sales trend/methodology/process starts to take hold beyond just the cutting-edge techies and social media mavens, it’s starting to look less like a “new sales methodology” and more like a requirement for any salespersons’ toolkit.
If I were to say to you today, “I want to help you learn telephone selling techniques,” you’d laugh me out of the room. Why? Because you’ve been doing that your entire career, as has every other salesperson.
Social networks, however, are relatively new. And it took a few years for smart salespeople to figure out how to leverage them for insights that helped move deals along. It also took a few years for people—you, me, your manager, your leads, their marketing departments—to all jump on the Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and other (Yes, I use Google+. Don’t judge me.), bandwagons.
Now, the use of social networks is ubiquitous. Seriously, who do you know who doesn’t have a Facebook account or a LinkedIn profile? It’s a pretty small group. So using this information to help you sell more is an obvious, albeit new, part of your daily life and it’s going to be for a long time.
So while the term “social selling” is pretty popular these days, it’s not really a thing. If you want to achieve your quota and outsell your competition, you need to treat it as the thing, meaning it’s what will set you apart for now, but pretty soon, it’ll be a normal part of selling, not just a buzzword.
This article was originally posted to the InsideView Blog by Jason Rushin on March 18, 2015.
How Social Media Can Help Your Sales Team
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on November 26, 2014
Nowadays, it is imperative that your sales team is using social media. Buyers judge the legitimacy of companies based on their social media presence or lack thereof. While your marketing department will likely handle social media for your business, it is critical that your sales team participates in the overall social media strategy. Each of your sales reps should maintain professional profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. By using social media, your sales team can do research, make connections, increase visibility, build relationships, engage with consumers, gain credibility, and generate sales leads. Studies show that salespeople who use social are more successful than those who do not. Here’s how social media can help your sales team.
Research
Do your homework. Your sales team can use social media to find out more about what people are talking about in the industry. Get to know your existing customers and see what you can learn about potential buyers. Find out what the competition is doing, who they are following, and who follows them. Do your research and uncover customer needs.
Make connections
Start following relevant people on Twitter. Invite prospects to like your company Facebook page. Add connections on your LinkedIn profile. Use these major social media platforms to make valuable connections in order to increase the number of relevant viewers when you share useful information. Social media is all about making connections and sharing content.
Increase visibility
Use social media to extend your reach and increase your company’s visibility. You want to make it as easy as possible for buyers to discover your company when they are researching products and services online. You need to have company accounts on all major social media networks as well as individual accounts for each of your sales reps. When they post updates on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, include links back to your informative blog to drive traffic to your website.
Build relationships
You can’t just add new contacts and call it a day. Take this opportunity to cultivate meaningful relationships with your followers. Social selling is all about building relationships using social media. Your sales team should use these social networks to get to know your customers and prospects.
Engage with consumers
Participate in discussions and forums online and respond to customer questions using social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter allow salespeople to communicate directly with existing customers and potential buyers. Engage buyers earlier on in the sales cycle and maintain relationships with current customers.
Gain credibility in the industry
Take advantage of content marketing and share valuable content using social media. If you don’t have one already, start a company blog so you have a place to add new, unique content on a regular basis. Share how-to guides, downloadable resources, videos, and Q&A articles. Consumers will come to recognize your company and your sales team as thought leaders and experts in the industry.
Generate sales leads
Your sales team can use social media to generate sales leads. In today’s digital age, customers want to guide themselves through the buying process. People are taking it upon themselves to research and compare companies, products, and services online. You want to use social media to demonstrate value and differentiation. When they’re ready to buy, you want them to remember your company and your knowledgeable team.
Encourage your sales team to use social media, incorporate social media into your sales cycle, and reap social selling rewards. There are so many ways social media can help your sales team. Social media can help your sales team do research, make connections, increase visibility, build relationships, engage with consumers, gain credibility, and generate qualified sales leads. Achieve optimal sales productivity with social media. Embrace social media as part of your sales cycle and watch your sales grow.
This article was originally posted to the SalesForce Search Blog by Matthew Cook on November 20, 2014.
How to Get Started at Social Selling
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on November 6, 2014
Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact with prospects. You might think that social media is a waste of company time, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Social selling can reduce the sales cycle time by fifty percent. Your potential buyers are on social media, so your salespeople should be too. Embrace social selling to connect with and communicate with prospects. Social media gives consumers the opportunity to ask companies questions directly and allows salespeople to respond quickly. This efficiency is valuable to consumers. Social selling is a valuable, efficient, and effective tool that your company needs to stop avoiding and start using.
Get Started: If you’re new to social media, don’t worry. It’s easy to set up company accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You should also encourage your salespeople to start individual accounts. Upload your company logo for company profile pictures and have your employees use professional headshots for their profiles. Every account associated with the company should include a link to your website in the description. Provide social media training if necessary. Equip your salespeople with the social selling skills they need to succeed.
Follow Prospects: You want to catch the attention of potential buyers and build a relevant following. Search for relevant keywords on Twitter and start following users who are discussing relevant topics. Check out your competition. Who are they following? You want to follow as many relevant people as possible. Ideally, these people will start following you back.
Social selling tools speed up sales research. By following customers and prospects, you can get to know them better. You will be able to research your prospects before meeting them. Discover their wants and needs. You can then address these issues and offer solutions. Show how your products/services can solve their problems.
Share Valuable Content: Establish yourself as a credible source of information. Produce valuable content to share via social media channels. Add value, drive traffic, and give consumers a reason to visit your website again and again. You can’t just tweet about your company with a link to your homepage and expect people to click through. Start a company blog and continue to post new, original content regularly. The more content you create and share, the more visible you will be to your followers. When you share content that your followers find useful or valuable, they will be more likely to share it with others, extending your reach even further. By providing new and interesting content, you will gain credibility. Eventually your followers will recognize you and your sales team as industry experts.
Interact with Prospects: Social media allows you to interact with consumers like never before. Instead of pushing the same old sales pitch, have meaningful conversations with prospects. Your sales reps should use their own individual profiles to communicate with prospects. Consumers will be more likely to interact with and take advice from an individual than a company. Take advantage of these platforms and communicate with prospects, answer their questions in a timely manner, and participate in relevant discussions.
Like, share, favorite, and re-tweet interesting content that others are posting. Successful salespeople understand the importance of creating connections and developing relationships with customers. Social selling is all about building strong relationships with potential buyers. By interacting with potential buyers, you can get a better understanding of their needs and interests. Use tools such as Tweetdeck and Google Alerts to receive notifications when consumers are discussing specific topics. You can then participate and provide useful information in real time.
Start Social Selling: It’s impossible to ignore the impact social media has on sales. It has become a valuable lead generation tool. Update your sales and marketing strategies and get your sales team involved. Social selling is a powerful and advantageous tool. Don’t miss potential sales. Start social selling and increase efficiency, productivity, and sales.
This article was originally posted to the SalesForce Search Blog by Scott Lombardi on 10/24/14.
Few Consumers Actually Heed Social Media
Posted by Rick Pranitis in MARKETING on September 24, 2014
Ever since Facebook first introduced brand pages in 2007, companies have been flocking to social media. Many business leaders believe that the more they post and share about their products and services, the greater their chances of attracting customers and generating revenue.
But just-released research from Gallup’s State of the American Consumer report suggests that much of these efforts have been misguided.
Social media are not the powerful and persuasive marketing force many companies assumed they would be. Gallup finds that a full 62% of U.S. adults who use social media say that these sites have absolutely no influence on their purchasing decisions. Another 30% say these sites have some influence, and just 5% say they have a great deal of influence.
And although companies may think that people who “like” or follow them on social media are an attentive audience, our research suggests otherwise. Of consumers who report liking or following a company, 34% still say that social media have no influence on their purchasing behavior, while 53% say they have only some influence.
When compared with more traditional forms of social networking, social media initiatives may actually be the least effective method for influencing consumers’ buying decisions. Gallup research has shown that consumers are much more likely to turn to friends, family members, and experts when seeking advice about companies, brands, products, or services. Social media sites have almost no sway.
These findings raise a question: is there an inherent flaw in the idea of using social media to drive purchasing, or have companies just been using social media poorly? The fact that some portion of buyers credit social media with having real influence suggests the latter may be true. Consumers are drawn to social media because they want to take part in the conversation and make connections. But many companies continue to treat social media as a one-way communication vehicle and are largely focused on how they can use these sites to push their marketing agendas.
To positively influence purchasing through social media, marketers should learn to use it to listen and interact. Consumers are more likely to engage when the brand-related posts they encounter are:
- Social media sites are highly personal and conversational. And, as Gallup finds, consumers who use these sites don’t want to hear a sales pitch. They’re more likely to listen and respond to companies that seem genuine and personable. Companies should back away from the hard sell and focus on creating more of an open dialogue with consumers.
- The social media world is 24/7, and consumers expect timely responses – even on nights and weekends. Companies must be available to answer questions and reply to complaints and criticisms; ignoring negative feedback can do considerable damage to a brand’s reputation. Instead, companies must actively listen to what their customers are saying and respond accordingly. If they made mistakes, they must own up to them and take responsibility.
- Content is everywhere, and consumers have the ability to pick and choose what they like. Companies must create compelling, interesting content that appeals to busy, picky social media users. This content should be original to the company and not related to sales or marketing. Consumers need a reason to visit and interact with a company’s social media site and to keep coming back.
When companies focus their social media efforts on pushing product and not cultivating communities, they overlook the real potential of these channels. Gallup research has consistently shown that customers base purchasing decisions on their emotional connections with a brand. Social media are great for making those connections — but only when a brand shifts its focus from communication to conversation.
This article was originally posted to the HBR Blog Network by Ed O’Boyle on June 23, 2014.
Social Media; Helping Manage and Close Deals
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on June 23, 2014
Social media is often thought of as an external, customer-facing sales tool. But inside the organization, social technologies are powerful tools you can use to engage your employees for real-time feedback, enabling them to collaborate on tasks and connect to the resources they need for success. Imagine your ability to harness and develop new business ideas when your employees are all connected, working together, real-time.
Sales professionals need to be able to get up to speed quickly, keeping track of the network of people and business events that are relevant to closing deals. They are looking for tools which can make them more educated not just about the prospect but also about your organization’s offerings, before, during, and after sales discussions.
What’s the biggest complaint in sales? Hands down, it’s sending too much time on non-selling activities. Sales people are constantly looking for answers and expertise to close more deals faster. In our personal lives it’s fairly easy to find people and information we need – we use search engines and social networks to find what we want. Why wouldn’t the same approach make sense at work? This is why social experiences should be an integral part of business solutions.
Ask any salesperson how they meet revenue targets and they’ll tell you it’s all about how they can stay on top of the situation. How does a sales person cut through the clutter of daily business and listen to what’s going on in the context of his specific accounts, leads, contacts, and deals? They want business tools which help them “follow” the people, organizations, and events they cares about. And of course they need access to this information no matter where they are—at their desk or on the road through a tablet or phone.
Social tools can also help accelerate the sales process. Salespeople constantly need to make decisions about the deals and people they work with. Public social networks like LinkedIn provide additional insight into customer connections, preferences, behaviors and sentiments, which can lead to more productive sales engagements. Pulling this information into daily productivity tools—such as Outlook email client or a CRM application, for instance—in a way that allows people to manage their social networks and stay up-to-date directly in that tool, is a real benefit to the sales professional and the organization as a whole.
Salespeople are results-oriented—they like to have achievements acknowledged (and shared). Social tools for business can be configured to automatically post updates when actions occur, such as closing a deal. The system can be a real support to someone in this role, offering instant acknowledgement and making sure everyone in his organization’s network—from the boss to the VP of Sales—is aware of the efforts and successes of the sales team.
Follow On The Web!
