Last week, we launched into March taking a look at social media marketing and the many benefits to businesses. In our last article, we took a look at some practical tips to successfully manage your social media efforts.
But every good marketer knows that targeted efforts are what drive results. But how can you do that when it comes to social media? In today’s post, we’ll discuss a few highly successful tactics for engaging appropriately with your targeted audience using social media.
Most notably, it’s important to know what channel or platform is best for reaching your audience. In general, Facebook tends to work best for internal company communications and for highlighting the culture of your company with your audience. When attempting to target other business connections, consider LinkedIn or Twitter your most valuable platforms. LinkedIn offers users the ability to view discussions and topics that they find relevant. In addition, users are able to view other users’ profiles to verify their level of expertise and credentials.
For marketers striving to gain attention among Federal workers, once again Twitter and LinkedIn are highly successful. But in addition, consider venturing out into new government-specific social media platforms such as GovLoop or GovWin.
After determining which platform(s) is most used by your target audience, spend some time understanding your prospects. Where do they hang out online? What topics are they spending time engaging with?
Taking a small amount of time to do some targeted research before hand can amplify your success exponentially. If you know the name of the targets you’re trying to reach, take a moment to look them up on LinkedIn. Are they a member of any groups? Do they share content on a specific topic frequently? Do they engage in any discussions? If so, what topics have them chiming in most frequently?
If you aren’t targeting a specific person, but rather a demographic or title, consider searching for people who hold similar titles or positions. As the old saying goes, “birds of a feather flock together”. More than likely, there’s a LinkedIn group where industry leaders of your target audience congregate regularly.
Lastly, after deciding which platform is best and if or where your targets spend their time online, make sure you’re aware of any specific lingo or jargon your audience may use to discuss their industry. For example, on Twitter, you may be using #videoconferencing to try to reach collaboration professionals, when in actuality, your audience is using #VTC to tag their content related to video teleconferencing.
While social media can be an inexpensive yet highly effective tool for B2B marketers, your efforts can be futile without appropriate targeting and some simple research.
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