Most companies realize the importance of social media in the B2B market, but what they don’t realize is how important it is to share your blog on social media the correct way.
What Is A Blog?
Some companies might think that a blog is pointless and doesn’t contribute to turning people into customers. On the contrary, most businesses can benefit from blogging. So, what is a blog? A blog is an informal journal located on either a personal or a company website that contains the thoughts and opinions of an individual or group of people with supporting multimedia. B2B companies utilize blogs to increase their SEO, establish their business as an industry leader, develop and strengthen new and existing customers, connect people to your brand, and increase opportunities for sharing.
Why Blogging Is Important
Blogging is a great opportunity to show your expertise and knowledge to potential and existing customers. Blogs are an inexpensive way to engage your existing and potentially new customers. They have the option to read and comment on your blog which allows you to respond and facilitate a discussion. Blogging also builds credibility with other influential bloggers which increases the chances they will share your post with their followers therefore increasing your followers. Blogs contain a lot of information about a specific topic that is really easy to share with other people, especially on social media. Customers use blogs to gain further insight on a specific topic to aid business decisions.
Tips for Successful Blogging
If you’re going to put in the time and effort to write a blog, it is important you make your efforts worthwhile.
1. Post regularly. Industrial B2B companies should post one blog per month around the same time so loyal readers will know when to expect it.
2. Use catchy headlines. The first thing people will read is the headline. If it isn’t interesting, they might not click on the blog or your website.
3. Discover your target audience. You should tailor your posts content and tone to your target audience to keep the information consistent with their expectations. This will help establish loyal readers who keep coming back to your blog and website.
4. Make it easy for customers to share. People can share your blog link to their social media sites, in a text message, or email. This will increase views and traffic to your website and market growth.
5. Use metrics to refine your approach. Google Analytics is a great tool to measure traffic, referrals, in/outbound links, and your most popular blog posts. From this you can determine what content is catching people’s attention and/or falling short of traffic expectations to aid in content creation for the future.
Using Social Media to Share Your Blog
Blogging allows you to delve into great detail about a specific topic that you can’t accomplish in a concise message on social media. Social Media allows you to share a link to your blog on your social media sites which invites people to read your blog and then hopefully navigate to your website. This also provides additional links to your website which increases search engine favorability and a greater likelihood people will view your website to learn more about your company and offerings. Make sure to attach the social media buttons at the bottom of your blog so customers can easily access and view your other social sites. Create your own hashtags to use on multiple channels and cross promote your content tailored to that specific channel’s audience. Each social media site is tailored to a specific audience; you wouldn’t post the same thing on Facebook and LinkedIn because LinkedIn is a professional channel and Facebook is more informal. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform where you’re limited to the number of characters your message can contain. Instagram is used for sharing pictures and video hash tagged for easy searching.
You can post on your business LinkedIn page, group, and/or a company showcase page. You should post up to 150 characters with a picture or video with a link to the blog to ensure the most views. Asking questions, lists and how-to posts with engaging comments generate the most views and shares. You should share the same post once a week and then reduce it to every couple of months on your LinkedIn profile. Posting 8-10am and 4-6pm are the times people are most likely to view your post and share it with others. If you share something to your showcase page, do it at a different time than your LinkedIn profile and make sure the content is specifically tailored to that showcase page.
Facebook allows you to promote your blog on a personal, business, and/or group page. People engage with posts more frequently if it includes pictures or video and contains less than 50 characters. It’s important to also include a link to the blog in the post instead of using the automatic link preview function because it will increase the reach of your post. Sharing photos and videos of employees is a good idea because it provides a face to the company and is more personable rather than a generic graphic. An engaging post will invite others to comment and/or share the post with their followers, as well as participate in the discussion on the blog. You can use hashtags for easy search purposes, but it doesn’t do much in terms of engagement. The best time to post on Facebook would be 1-4pm, 6-10pm and weekends and it’s best to only post once a day. Posting too much is viewed as spam and you’ll likely be unfollowed. If you want to re-share the same post, wait a couple of months so people perceive the content as new and not just recycled. You can also add a Facebook “Like” and “Share” button at the bottom of your blog to make it easy for people to share it on their page for all their followers to view.
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that only allows up to 140 characters, so it’s important you write the most compelling and engaging post. It is also the first social media channel that introduced the hashtag and @handles that makes searching for specific topics and conversations easier. Again, images, videos, and links are the most viewed, shared, and engaging content on Twitter as opposed to a plain text post. The best times to post content are 8-10am, 11-1pm, and 4-7pm at least once a day at varying times during the week. A tweet only lasts about 18 minutes so it’s important to repeatedly share the same post for a week or so before reducing it gradually to every couple of months. View any comments and respond when appropriate if someone has a question or comment.
