How to increase engagement on social media for b2b companies
Here in our regular blog, we look at some of the practical ways of increasing social media engagement and give you some top tips.
Human interest stories
We all know that when we read a newspaper, it’s the people stories that we are drawn to first, rather than text-heavy features. When it comes to social media, it important to get the balance right between people stories and information about the company.
We liken it to a conversation and here people often use humour, personal stories and examples to get across often quite in-depth subjects. The same approach works really well for social media, with the strategy being one that aims to strike up two way dialogue with your customers.
Use Practical examples
Most businesses now talk about sustainability, although for many of your customers it is difficult to visual exactly what you mean when you say that, as a company, you are ‘committed to minimising your impact on the environment’.
When it comes to your social media strategy, it is far better to use practical, everyday examples to illustrate exactly how you are doing this. For example, we work with a building product manufacture where we regularly post how they are achieving their ‘sustainability goals’. Last week, for instance, we posted about them changing all their light bulbs and office lighting to low energy alternatives. It gained a lot of engagement because their customers could visualise what they had done.
There are many examples like this in most business; switching to water based paints, sourcing FSC timber products, investing in electric delivery vehicles or installing solar panels. All great practical examples that create really powerful content for social media.
National days
There is a growing number of national days which are useful for creating a more interesting and engaging social media strategy. A great one for the construction sector, and one we’ve used for our building product manufacture clients, is World Mental Health Day (10th October). Mental Health in construction is an important area and, managed appropriately through social media, can demonstrate the caring side of your business.
Other national days can also contribute to your social media strategy. Subjects range from air quality (great if your business is involved this area), safety (good for health and safety such as work at height) and energy saving, amongst others.
There is a growing number of national awareness days and we can use these to help you communicate with potential and existing customers.
Video content
Research by Hubspot shows that 71% of people who view a product video go on to make a purchase. Video is a really powerful medium for generating sales leads and helping you convert enquiries. The challenge is getting potential customers to view the video, although social medium is ideal for this because people are much more likely to view this kind of content when it is presented to them via Twitter or Facebook.
Video content is now integral to marketing strategies aimed at younger generations, although it is just as important when it comes to other age groups. For instance, the new generation of architects and building contractors expect to be able to view video content before choosing a product. Their starting point on this journey will often be your social media channels. The great thing about the videos we produce is that they allow you to sell your brand story with the bonus of maybe selling your products, too! The success of video as a tool within your social media strategy is that it is a trusted medium – it allows us to tell your customers exactly who you are, what your brand stands for. Our videos show the personality of your company and the people who work within it and that is a really powerful sales message.
LinkedIn advertising
Sometimes, when it comes to your social media strategy, you just want get a message out into the marketplace. Often, the best way of doing that is to use LinkedIn, especially for B2B communications because it enables you to target specific job roles, industries, locations etc.
We recently used LinkedIn Sponsored Posts and Inmail to ramp up attendance at one of our client’s online construction webinars. They were looking to target construction site managers and our campaign proved a highly effective way of trebling the number of people who pre-registered to the event.
To find out more about how we could enhance your social media campaign, increasing engagement and followers in particular b2b sectors, call our social media team on 0114 349 5344 or email: hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.
Dragonfly PR is a Sheffield-based PR and digital marketing agency that specialises in media relations, content marketing and organic SEO for construction and manufacturing companies.