Online marketing experts say there’s really no single-channel approach to social media marketing.
When B2B lead generation and social media got married in the last decade, the marketing frontrunner was Facebook and Twitter, and then came the second wave composed of Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. So what is the winning combination? Well, if you’re going for a strong integration of exposure, interaction, accuracy and depth, your big three would be Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s the optimum choice to ensure your way to the lead generation finish line, much like a triathlon – 3 separate efforts towards one goal. And here’s why:
It’s true that Facebook is more valuable in the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) game, but even B2B marketers could not deny that no other social networking site has as much impact. Facebook’s role in the lead generation trio is exposure. In conquering a community of buyers and business potentials, you’ve got to start somewhere, and your first goal would be to bare your product or service to the world. Create a business page, attract fans, and engage them. Once that is established, cue the second and third legs of your scheme.
What Twitter brings to the table is real-time interaction and expansion. If Facebook is able to give you brand awareness through hundreds or thousands of fans, Twitter can bring millions into the mix, if done effectively. B2B lead generation is much efficient when businesses can incorporate strategic keywords and hashtags in their interactions to allow people to search and filter specific fields. It’s also much easier to position call-to-action links and content that lead back to your site, thus generating favorable traffic that’s already target-oriented. Of course, it also brings about retweeting influencers so your followers (and you) could gain access to streams of insights and industry nuggets.
And now with LinkedIn, it’s strictly business. More than 80% of B2B marketers have accounts, and you can add depth and accuracy to your targeting by encouraging interaction. Optimize your business profile page to attract interested parties to your products or services with direct links to your company website and sales team contact information. Prospects can easily assess your credibility and relevance by just merely looking at your page, evaluating endorsements, and checking your background.
Naturally, you can always add more platforms to the combination, depending on specific demographics you want to touch, or certain branding tactics you want to employ. The key is to find the right balance, make sure each part has its own function, and keep all eyes on that white ribbon at the finish line.
This content originally appeared at Callbox Blog.
