When it comes to marketing, the larger social media networks like Twitter and Facebook are more often seen as better for business-to-consumer (B2C), with professional sites such as LinkedIn viewed as the business-to-business (B2B) platform of choice. This does not mean, however, that you can’t get a lot of value out of consumer-based platforms like Facebook. A robust marketing strategy is all-inclusive, incorporating and utilizing social media platforms in the ways they most present value. A little effort can still go a long way almost anywhere.
Remember that marketing is all about perception and pivoting your brand to come across as desirable, relevant and useful. Having a presence on all major forms of social media will convey a holistic and thorough presence, with potential customers typically checking out your brand’s profiles across the full spectrum of media platforms. You always want to cover all of your bases, because you never know which social media channel is a customer’s medium of choice.
You’re marketing your brand to attract not just business but also potential employees. Social media is an often overlooked HR tool that can draw clients as well as attract top talent to your team. You can and should utilize it to present a thorough understanding of your business to both customers and potential employees.
Get Personal Stock photos are often obvious, especially on sites that use a commonly recognizable layout. Nothing beats featuring actual employees on your social media, especially on Facebook. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) link your Facebook profile directly to your employees’, but showcasing real people enjoying themselves at work (think company parties, outings, enthusiastic meetings and upbeat candid moments) will go a long way with consumers. People like to engage with friendly people, and your public face should represent that.
There’s also a much-dreaded and often underused (or outright disabled) yet ultimately beneficial aspect of social media profiles: reviews. Consider enabling reviews as a method of conveying how you operate. Sure, everyone is terrified of that one first bad review, but remember that there are living, breathing and (more importantly) thinking people who will be reading them. Everyone gets a bad review sometimes, and often it’s obvious when a bad review is really about something entirely different than the business. While positive reviews are great for business, negative reviews offer the opportunity for your brand to respond in a timely and efficient manner, showcasing your ability to handle real-time issues in a prompt fashion, and ultimately presenting your brand’s commitment to communication, remediation and success. Just be sure to reply to all of your reviews (setting up email notifications for reviews and comments is paramount for this). A well-reviewed business looks attractive to both customers and potential employees, and the more reviews, the merrier. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words Get visual. Pictures convey more in less time. While most of us in the mortgage industry aren’t drowning in beautiful visual content (although appraisal photos can sometimes be quite horrifying… er, entertaining), creating images for holidays and general use is a good idea. Thank-you, praise, motivational and holiday images are always useful and help associate your brand with positive emotion. Use free tools like PicMonkey to create engaging graphics ranging from images to positive or humorous text.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is a novel. Remember that you are the best advocate for your business, and you can act as such by speaking directly to your fans on Facebook. Consider videos that help clients use your services, such as software-use tutorials, and videos lending advice on your industry, such as how to avoid pitfalls and how best to accomplish something complementary to your services. You don’t need a professional videographer to do the job anymore thanks to the newfound familiarity of amateur online video; short and simple will do the trick. Just like with your profile in general, remember to reply in short order to any comments or questions on the videos.
Tell a Story. Tell Your Story. Remember that part about making it personal? I meant it. Customers will remain loyal to a brand they feel that they know. This is why having positive, helpful and upbeat customer service representatives is so important. If interacting with your brand is an absolute pleasure, customers will stick with you even through hiccups and other inevitable service issues. You want your social media presence to tell a story, and there is no story better than your own. Did you begin as a small business? Talk about those days. Were you a startup? Describe it to people. Show them how far you’ve come, and what you’ve overcome. Compare your company to the old you, especially on #ThrowbackThursday. Employee of the month photos? Feature anyone’s newest picture against their oldest, and people will eat it up with a spoon, and maybe even comment, much to your employees’ chagrin. Telling and showing your history and evolution makes you more relatable.
Recycle Content in Different Forms Not everyone is going to watch your video, and that’s fine. Some people like visuals, some people like text, and almost no one likes sitting on hold, waiting to ask a question. Remember that everything you do is a source of content, so repurpose it. Transcribe the audio from your videos into text and offer content in that form in accompaniment to the video. Many people can read at their desk but not listen to audio or hear video. If you have enough verbal content, consider creating a white paper with it and offer that as well. This also goes for webinars; transcribe them and offer their content as an industry white paper.
These can be especially useful draws to collect the email addresses of industry professionals via unique landing pages that will show you how your audience is getting to your website. Getting people to subscribe to an email list is easy with incentives like white papers and webinars. If you can help them, they can probably help you as well with their business. Think about what you have to offer, and go ahead and try it out.
Remember, even though sites like Facebook and Twitter aren’t the usual go-tos for B2B marketing, they still have unique potential to help buoy you at almost every level of your sales funnel, so don’t write them off out of neglect or trepidation. Trying is better than not; just be sure to keep trying. Nothing is worse than a looming two-year hole in your social media presence. Marketing is always a work in progress, because media and technology change so rapidly in the digital age. As long as you’re along for the ride, you’ll pick up loyal clients along the way.
