B2B Social Media Marketing – What are the benefits of using Social Media within B2B Construction Industry? What is the best way to promote my products and services with social media? Here are some useful tips for using Social Media Marketing in the B2B construction industry.
Pro Tip: Use Targeted Content with your social media channels to dominate your construction industry competition.
In a recent article about Building B2B Brand Awareness using social media marketing we discussed how to identify your ideal buyer and at what stages of the Buyers Journey you should market to them.
Using B2B Social Media Marketing. Today we are creating a solid plan specifically designed to target the Commercial B2B Construction Industry.
We all know that building B2B Brand Awareness using social media can appear complex. But, if you break it down, it’s quite simple.
- Be clear about what you want to achieve.
- Focus your efforts to reach the right people through the right social channels.
- Generate Goodwill
B2B Social Media Marketing
[su_highlight]As of April 2016, almost three-quarters of internet users in the United States accessed market leader Facebook. Social sharing platform Pinterest had the second-largest reach among the U.S. online population with a 31 percent usage rate, followed by Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Overall, 81 percent of internet users in the United States had a social networking profile.[/su_highlight]
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The number of social network users in the United States is projected to surpass 200 million users in 2019.
Here is the Million Dollar Question – “Which social media networks will get my content/events in front of the right people?”
Many contractors get referrals through word of mouth and other social communications. It makes sense then, to use social channels to find more business.
From experience, I’ve found that B2B construction industry marketing tends to work well on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube more than other social channels. If you are in a visual medium such as Commercial Painting, Landscaping Design or Architecture, you could add Pinterest into the mix.
For the Commercial Construction Industry, specifically B2B suppliers, we are going to concentrate on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+. Each serves a niche population, some larger than others but all important to one business or another.
Benefits of Facebook for B2B Contractors
With over 192 million daily active users in the US and 1.6 Billion worldwide, Facebook is the #1 social media platform. The average user has 135 friends, and checks in between 6 and 9 times per day.
If you can get your real customers, current and past, within your sphere of influence to connect with you on social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and/or Google+) your business is exposed to their 135 friends as soon as they “like” and follow your page.
Facebook not only helps build brand awareness, trust, and engagement among your target audience, it also helps to establish and enhance your business’ organic listing placement. Google loves Facebook.
Having a dedicated business page on Facebook is a MUST. It will allow you access to hundreds of thousands of potential clients and customers in your geographic area. You can talk about the services you provide, offer real-time quotes for projects that individuals may need, and most importantly show your personality.
All commercial product and service-based businesses need to be utilizing Facebook as an integral piece of their B2B Social Media Marketing network!
Benefits of Twitter for Commercial Contractor’s
Twitter is great for branding and getting the word out about your business. You can send out quick tweets with links to your latest blog article or video, share short updates about what you’re working on, or ask and answer questions.
But best of all, Twitter can expand and strengthen your brand, and help your marketing team reach potential clients throughout your service area.
It can also be a great avenue for customer service, providing your followers another avenue for communicating directly with your brand.
[su_highlight background=”#bcff99″]Twitter is instant and it can be automated using 3rd party services like SproutSocial, Hootsuite, and TweetDeck.[/su_highlight]
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Twitter offers your business the unique opportunity to create viral promotions. Create giveaways by using hashtags to promote an event or new product release. Hashtags can also be searched. By seeing people tag your business or other relevant businesses revealing the topics that interest them.
Use Twitter to expand and strengthen your brand. Drive traffic to your website and stay in contact with customers in a casual and friendly manner. Highlight the great quality of your work, and keep your name in front of both past and current clients.
Bottom-line, when properly maintained, a commercial contractor’s Twitter account can be used as a powerful tool, one that will result in higher revenues.
Benefits of Professional LinkedIn Profile
Professional contractors; By not taking advantage of LinkedIn, you could miss out on your biggest professional opportunities. LinkedIn is the ideal platform for connecting with other business professionals. By creating trusted relationships that can help you further your business and career.
LinkedIn’s professional focus allows you to connect with former customers, peers, or even companies with whom you want to work. The platform’s most beneficial features include:
- Industry-specific groups: LinkedIn has thousands of groups you can join to meet individuals with similar interests. Connect with potential customers or employees and showcase your expertise by engaging in discussions
- Publishing to LinkedIn Pulse: As an industry leader, this is probably the biggest advantage on Social media. Pulse is LinkedIn’s native blogging platform. Whether you’re already blogging or not, Pulse is a great platform to publish long-form content. Every time you post, all your connections receive a notification to read it.
- Connect with Potential Customers: Showcase your talents with a professional profile picture and page header. It’s all about branding. Make sure you’re leveraging everything LinkedIn offers. Make potential customers want to contact you.
- Connect with other Contractors: It’s good to know your competition and build relationships, whether to see how they’re doing things, or to brainstorm collaboration opportunities. It’s a good idea to build your industry-specific network so you have a pulse on the community.
- Recommendations: On your personal profile, you can request and showcase recommendations from past customers or peers. This kind of vote-of-confidence gives your business and skills more credibility.
Benefits of Google+ for Every Business
Every business should utilize Google+ as part of their SEO strategy. Google+ has 300 million monthly active users and over a 53 percent positive interaction between users and brands. Google+ is a B2B Social Media Marketing dream come true.
Utilizing the Google+ platform properly enhances a business’ organic listing placement and can even help lead potential consumers to the information they need to be converted into loyal customers.
Also, activity on Google+ is a key way to boost search engine results. Businesses that engage on Google+ are ranked higher when people search for related products and services. This means customers find you first, not your competitors.
Even more important however, is that you engage with your past and current clients. Offer tips and advice to anyone with a question, and respond to all reviews of your services.
Google is the single most used search engine in the world, and they love to give preference to businesses using their social network. Posting content for your business on Google+ will positively influence your search engine rankings.
Because Google places such a high premium on communities, Google+ is a great tool for remaining connected with the people who are interested in your brand. Over time, your company will grow its authority, network, and potential client base.
Using YouTube for B2B Social Media Marketing
If you want real results from B2B social media marketing you need to consistently create high quality, informative content. The easiest way to do this is to create videos or video blogs as part of your media campaign.
These videos can take the shape of almost anything that details stories of and/or related to your company. Tell the origin story of your company where you detail why it was set up in the first place. Put a personal face on it, tell the family story.
Obviously you should create content based on the products or services that you’re creating. Explain the reason that they were created, as well as showcasing the effort that goes into creating them.
You should create video tours of a few completed projects and highlight the best features of your product. You might add a testimonial by your customers that show how their lives changed because of your product or service.
Often over looked, but very important, documenting an event your company hosted or sponsored on your social media account is another good avenue. Does your company support local charities or military events? You must do things for the greater good. Google loves human interest stories.
Stay Engaged with your Social Media
The goal with B2B Social Media Marketing is to build a community. Stay Engaged with your social media profiles by replying to social media account comments. Your expertise will be appreciated and your customers will feel more comfortable getting in touch via social networks.
Start cross-promoting by sharing news and updates from other businesses, and they’ll likely return the favor. When you build relationships with these businesses, you improve your reputation and increase your visibility.
The #1 priority is to connect with people! Don’t push products or services too much. You only need a few service or product posts per week to keep people behind your brand.
Post regularly – Make updates at least a few times a day. Share a link to a news story or photos of a recently completed project, or even just updates about your company. If you’re running low on content ideas, comment on other posts or participate in discussions. Whatever you do, do it often enough to stay visible in social media feeds.
Track and monitor your results – Use analytic tools to measure the number of followers on each channel, along with the number of times content is shared. Track the click rate on content and determine how much revenue it generates. As you monitor results, you’ll find out which tactics are most effective—and, ideally, optimize your strategy for even better results.
In Conclusion
While one of your primary goals on social media might be to attract new clients, you should also work to build connections with other businesses in your industry. Get involved in discussions about regulations, pricing pressures, and other issues concerning your industry.
WHAT DO PEOPLE REALLY WANT? Honesty about services and products. A company that acts with integrity and reliability keeps it’s customers attention.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Using #SocialMediaMarketing to raise your visibility, reach new prospects, show off your experience. Use targeted content and social media to dominate your #B2B competition.” quote=”Use B2B Social Media Marketing to raise your visibility, reach new prospects, show off your experience”]
For more information on our social media management plans speak with a strategist today. Use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn to improve your online visibility. Attract new clients for your business using B2B Social Media Marketing. Feel free to contact us!
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Michael Klasno is a consummate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist with an impressive 20-year tenure in the digital marketing landscape. Throughout two decades, Michael has been at the forefront of evolving website design & SEO strategies, seamlessly integrating the latest trends with time-tested methodologies.
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