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Copyright © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. RA-CO054A-EN-P
Why social is good for business.A handy guide to using social media for business development and success.
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Social media: What exactly is it and what’s in it for me?
Social media. We’ve all heard of it, but there are still common misconceptions about what it is, how it works and how businesses can benefit from being involved in it.
If you think social media is about Facebook friends and tweeting how you’ve spent your morning, you’re probably not using it to its fullest potential. Yes, social media is about who you know and what you’re doing, but more importantly from a business perspective, it’s about why you’re there and what you’re aiming to get out of it.
81% of online adults use social media. Source: Forrester Research
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Social makes senseMillions of businesses worldwide get the benefits of a social media presence every working day. They understand that the platforms available give them unlimited access to an audience that’s only as limited as they want it to be. They understand that social helps them to establish meaningful, profitable, long-term relationships with prospects and customers, using it as an information, communications and networking hub, crisis management tool and brand reputation enhancer.
Search and social are how prospects become buyersThese businesses also understand that search and social media are where unknown prospects become known customers. In a connected world where 93% of business buyers use an online search to begin their purchase journey (Source: Marketo), not being there at the start means not having a hope of getting the business. Especially when you realise that in addition to the above, prospective buyers today get 67% of their way through the buying cycle before engaging with suppliers, finding out exactly what they need to know, on their terms and in their own time. You really need to be a part of this process.
Within B2B environments, search and social are fuelled by content. Without content, you will have little to attract audiences with through social media and receive less search traffic. More importantly, without content, the visitors you do generate will remain unknown to you. Content is the glue that sticks prospects to your company, encouraging them through the buyer cycle to purchase, where you get the bottom-line benefit.
Nine out of ten business buyers say when they’re ready to buy, they will find you. Source: DemandGen Report
84% of customers say word-of-mouth recommendations influence their purchase decisions. Source: DemandGen Report
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Considering your content and where to put it.
As we’ve said, content is the glue that sticks your customers to your products and services, consisting of the resources you require to meet your prospects’ needs based on where they are in their buyer cycle.
Essentially, your content will include research documents, white papers, customer case studies, videos and news items that you use to populate various social media platforms. Here are the most commonly used formats in B2B marketing:
Content Marketing Institute, B2B Content Marketing: 2013 benchmarks, budgets and trends – North America
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Socia
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ia –
Oth
er th
an bl
ogs
87
%
Vide
os
70%
Rese
arch
Rep
orts
44%
eBoo
ks
32%
26
%
Artic
les o
n you
r web
site
83%
Artic
les o
n oth
er w
ebsit
es
70%
Micr
osite
s 40
%
Prin
t mag
azin
es
31%
Mob
ile ap
ps
26%
eNew
slette
rs 78
%
In-p
erso
n eve
nts
69%
Info
grap
hics
38
%
Book
s 29
%
25
%Di
gita
l mag
azin
es
Blog
s 77
%
Whi
te pa
pers
61%
Bran
ded C
onte
nt to
ols
38%
28
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rtual
conf
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ces
Licen
sed /
synd
icate
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tent
24
%Pr
int n
ewsle
tters
Case
stud
ies
71%
Web
inar
s / W
ebca
sts
59%
Mob
ile co
nten
t 33
%
Podc
asts
27%
20
%An
nual
repo
rts
11
%Ga
mes
/ Gam
ifica
tion
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Social media connects you with the business communities that help you to grow your business.
In a B2B context, social media enables you to tap into communities of employees, partners, customers and prospects, industry bodies, every imaginable group with a stakeholder interest in buying or selling what it is you have on offer.
Using social media gives you previously unimagined access to a process of mass collaboration that can help you to achieve your most important business goals and maintain competitive advantage.
Viewed as a long-term strategic investment, social media represents one of the most potent tools in B2B marketing. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are probably the best-known examples of social media platforms, but others are constantly being developed to meet specific customer needs or wants and take advantage of new technologies.
An active LinkedIn user will post a change of job as soon as they hear they’ve been successful, a great opportunity to connect and congratulate them
A Friday afternoon tweet, a competition or quiz, could attract the interest of someone who could ultimately become a loyal customer
If you’re on Google+, your page is eligible to show on the right-hand side of results when relevant to a customer’s search
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How to engage with LinkedIn
1. Search ‘Groups’ for Rockwell Automation and join those that are of interest to you.
2. Looking for a new job? Check out the recruitment and career possibilities on your favorite company pages.
3. Check out how you’re connected: based on your current connections, you probably have first or second degree contacts within our organization - connect with them!
Social media platforms you’ll know, and some you might not.
LinkedInLinkedIn is the definitive social media platform for the business community, enabling users to search for and find the vast majority of business men and women in the Western world.
77% of all job openings are posted on LinkedIn is proof enough of its standing in the workplace (Source: Masters in Human Resources)
Your company profile is the most important part of your LinkedIn presence that you can control. With around half of profiles incomplete, spending a moment ensuring your profile is concise, comprehensive and up-to-date is going to give you an instant advantage over competitors.
The products and services feature in your profile gives you the chance to position your products and services in the most positive way, ensuring that imagery is current and clear. Recommendations are one of the most persuasive factors for prospects, so make sure that yours are optimized.
• 17millionincrease in less than a year
• Usersfrommorethan 200 countries
• Availablein19languages
200 million users
January 2013183 million
users
November 2012
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Twitter is a fast and easy way to get messages out there and to provide context to those messages with support from relevant sources of information including blogs, video content or websites.
Like other social media platforms, the trick with Twitter is to deliver content focused more on your customers’ needs than on your products and services. If prospects can see that you have an interest in fulfilling their needs, they’re more likely to give you permission to continue relationship-building by exchanging information with them.
Hashtags, retweets and @mentions all help to increase your profile by linking you to trending stories and business issues. Spend time each day furnishing your Twitter presence and responding promptly to interest shown in your company by other users.
How to engage with Twitter
1. Search and follow @ROKAutomation, and send us a Tweet - we’d love to hear from you!
2. Browse the ‘#’ that are relevant to your industry.3. Does your favorite company have ‘Lists’? This is a clickable
tab that will appear on the left of a company’s page, and will give you more information about employees, for example. Who else is there that you could follow in these groups?
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How to engage with YouTube
1. Subscribe to the Rockwell Automation channel and watch the overview video about our company.
2. Create your company’s channel and start uploading content!3. Search for any videos that interest you or check out the
most popular recommendations - you might find something that inspires you when creating your own channel.
YouTube
The use of video as a communications tool grows day-on-day, so it should be no surprise that YouTube is only matched by Google as a destination for business-related searches.
• Generateinterestingvideocontentbyaskingcustomersatatrade show stand to comment on your products or company
• Runashortseriesofvideosoutliningyourproductfrom a business, technical and financial perspective, presented by relevant personnel
• Alittletimetakenplanningyourvideocontentandediting a script will more than pay for itself
To ensure that your video content is visible, be sure to give your videos searchable titles, descriptions and tags. Include your website URL in your description, and embed videos on your site to make them more discoverable. By building your own YouTube channel, you make it easier for users to find your content. It also enables you to control the environment that contains your videos, helping to create a more rounded picture of your business and develop stronger customer relationships.
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As with any other medium, you’ll only make full use of Facebook when you’ve defined your audience, your goals and the reason for your presence there. Once these have been agreed, you need to address the basics, making sure that your cover image, your profile image and the About section present you in the best possible light.
• Regularpostingwillhelptokeepyourcontentfresh
• Useacontenteditorialcalendartoaddressrelevantissuesoveragiventimescale
• GrowyourFacebookcommunityandyou’llgrowyourcustomerbaseovertime
Whatever your activity, remember that Facebook is about relationships with people and communities. The best way of engaging prospects in your company is to engage fully in the platform yourself. By reaching out to your customers, you’ll gather valuable insights that will shape future communications activity. By making your wall a dynamic, changing space, you’ll earn visitors’ trust on the one hand, and be better placed to manage unfavorable comments about your company or its products.
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How to engage with Facebook
1. Visit our page and check out our latest news, product information, pictures and videos - did you know our company is celebrating its 110th anniversary?
2. Let the companies you admire and are interested in know by ‘Liking’ their pages.
3. If you haven’t already, set up your own company page - this is a great way of raising your brand’s persona and supplying customers and prospects with easy access to your location and contact information.
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Google+
With350millionactiveusersasofMarch2013,Google+isfastbecoming the most important platform for business users. The Google+Hangoutreal-timevideoapplicationisamajorbonusofGoogle+asaB2Bsocialnetwork,enablingyoutorunvideoconferencing within the tool.
AswellaskeepingbusinessprofessionalstalkingonGoogle+,HangoutscanbepublisheddirectlytoYouTube.Intermsofcontentdelivery,Google+helpsyoutoimprovesearchrankingsthankstosearchresultsofyourGoogle+circles.Whenuserscircle your company page, they have essentially chosen to receive information without any form-filling or email communications.
• AGoogle+makesyoumorevisiblewhencustomerssearchatopic related to your business
• Researchuserswhocircleyou,circlethembackandaddthemtounique circles based on their business interests
• Getandgiverelevant,usefulinformationtodeveloprelationships.
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How to engage with Google+
1. Search for ‘Rockwell Automation’ and add us to your circles.2. Search for other companies/people of interest and click the
‘People and Pages’ tab - look at the multitude of people connected with that organization - is there anyone you could add to your circles?
3. Search the ‘communities’ tab for your industry - how many can you join?
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1. Social media produces nearly double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail or PPC. (Source: HubSpot)
2. Social lead conversion rates are 13% higher than the average lead conversion rate. (Source: HubSpot)
3. 21% of marketers say that social media has become more important to their company over the past 6 months. (Source: HubSpot)
4. 74% of all marketers say Facebook is important to their lead generation strategies. (Source: HubSpot)
5. Companies that generate more than 1,000 Facebook likes also get close to 1,400 website visits daily. (Source: HubSpot)
6. On Facebook, brand posts achieve 50% of their reach within 30 minutes. (Source: Socialbakers)
7. 59% of Twitter users have visited B2B tech brand sites, compared to only 40% of average internet users. (Source: Compete and Twitter)
8. 25% of consumers who complain about products on Facebook or Twitter expect a response within an hour. (Source: American Express)
9. 23% of marketers are investing in blogging and social media this year—a 9% annual increase. (Source: HubSpot)
10. Approximately 46% of online users rely on social media, when they make a buying decision. (Source: Nielsen)
reasons why social media is a must for your business:
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And things to do next:
Connect with us via LinkedIn/Twitter/ YouTube/Facebook/Google+ links
Spend a moment online, soon, connecting with existing customers and suppliers
Check out what your competitors are doing on social media
Set up your Google+ page and create a Hangout
Check your LinkedIn presence and urge employees to connect
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