The rise of content marketing has paved the way for the growth and popularity of social media marketing in the last few years. It is an evolving field, and one that keeps marketing managers constantly working towards finding original and innovative ways to engage their audience.
What’s great about social media is how creative, fun and time-relevant it is. The reach and exposure it provides is a major drive for businesses to adopt social media as a key part of their marketing strategy. Why not? It’s mostly free, easily accessible and cost-effective. And, as more and more people are getting digital savvy, social media is becoming a primary channel for future communications.
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, Instagram, Pinterest have become valuable assets for B2B marketing. Each has its own unique attributes that help define your organisation's focus and views to your audiences. So, let’s look at Twitter in detail and see how it can be used to strengthen your marketing strategy.
Why use Twitter for B2Bmarketing?
Twitter has grown significantly especially in recent years amongst B2B marketers and entrepreneurs. You can principally use it to build up your brand, connect personally with your audience, promote your products, or even gather information on rivals.
Creating your account is simple and easy at www.twitter.com and you can start following relevant people on your target audience list. In time, with planned activities, you will also be able to grow an audience.
Twitter basics:
- 140 characters per tweets – consisting of words, numbers, links or an attached image.
- Generally a shortened url link takes up 20 characters, and optimised image (link to SEO Image optimisation blog) 20 characters, you can target the rest in framing eye-grabbing content.
- Set up your profile page with appropriate branding and bio, your audience might look at it before deciding whether to follow you
- Twitter acronyms: DM – direct message; RT – Retweet; MT –modified tweet
- Also, it’s greatly appreciated by other Twitter users when you mention their Twitter handle to give credit appropriately when due.
- A tweet with an attached image tends garner more visibility amongst audience. Relevant images when posted help in promoting the tweet itself and add value.
How to use Twitter in your B2B Marketing
Did you know 34% of customers have used social media to express their feelings about a company? And, that 92% say they have more confidence in the information found online than other sources (Source: @socialmedia2day ) According to Hootsuite author Olsy Sorokina – ‘Social media allows B2B organisations to reduce the costs of customer acquisition and relationship building.’
Tracking and engaging your audiences on Twitter
You can specifically target your customers by creating relevant campaigns and engage with them on a personal level. Today’s customers tend to share their experience, review or voice their dissatisfaction openly on social media. You can be pro-active and build a conversation on a personal level by introducing your brand or offering a solution to a predicament they might have. This helps to connect with potential audience and also to create an impact, highlighting you as an expert in your field.
Monitor your competitors on Twitter
Another great use of Twitter is that you can understand your competitors' strengths and weaknesses. Using their weaknesses, you can build a stronger marketing strategy to promote your products and your brand. For example: You can plan a special offer campaign when your competitor is not.
Chasing the same leads, it’s important that you are clued in to what’s happening in your industry and how your competitors are positioning themselves.
Improving traffic and search engine rankings:
Google has made it mandatory for all businesses to keep their website polished and active. Almost 97% of companies with an active blog receive more leads (Source). So you can see how content marketing impacts search engine rankings - and linking your blog through various social media activities helps drive more traffic, benefiting your business.
Improving your brand's visibility and reach:
Twitter is also a platform in which many businesses or committees conduct Q&A sessions. With the use of relevant hash tags, Q&A sessions are first promoted – a topic and time of the session is given and you can be a part of the session by sharing your personal views on the topic.
A few popular hash tags examples would be: #InfluencerChat, #MarketingMinds, #HootChat. You can check these out in Twitter to find out how it works – simple and easy. Participation in sessions like these gives you the step up to make a mark in your audience's mind and increases visibility for your brand.
You can track your Twitter insights
You can keep an eye on how you’re doing on Twitter with the help of this free analytics tool. You can measure, analyse and interpret how your audience think, what #hashtags are popular for your industry, see new followers and identify your most successful tweets that have made an impression.
So, what’s a Twitter impression? This metric comes in handy to analyse your Twitter strategy and plan further with a more targeted expertise. An impression is when a tweet posted generates an interaction or a conversation with people online. The higher number of impressions your hashtag brings in, the greater the chances of your tweet being popular amongst audiences.
In conclusion, more and more businesses are waking up to the fact that Twitter marketing is now a must-have for their business. So don’t just sign up to Twitter just because you feel obliged, do it because it helps bring in more inbound leads to grow your business. And, Twitter gives you the perfect platform to connect directly and engage with your audience.
Why not chat with us if you need help in building a strong Social Media Strategy for your business?
