social media

trailingspouse

How useful do you find Twitter, LinkedIn etc for promoting your business?

I've been on both for years, but never found either very useful (most of our work is by word of mouth) - but we are looking to expand and, well, might as well see if I can make more use of them than I have up to just...

phill99

I think you need to look inwards first, before you look outwards. The different branches of Social Media have different style of followers.


Linkedin is very much about business to business. If you are a B2B Business, then that will work for you.


If you are business to consumer and market towards a younger (sub 30) age group, then Twitter is the way forward.


Business to Consumer across the wide age spectrum, then facebook is for you.


However, you need to know how to exploit them to get a return off of them and you must keep at it. Social Media is very constant, so you have to be active on it.


I attended a Facebook marketing course about 3 years ago and now get about a quarter of my new leads from it. It is very much worth doing.


However, SM should be seen only as part of your marketing strategy and sit alongside other marketing mediums.

jamesperrett

phill99 wrote: »

However, you need to know how to exploit them to get a return off of them and you must keep at it. Social Media is very constant, so you have to be active on it.

One tip - avoid automated software that keeps on repeating the same old messages every few days. There are a few businesses that I've stopped following because most of their messages are just repeats. By all means use software that can send the same message to multiple platforms but avoid any auto repeats.

trailingspouse

Thanks both.

Yes, we are B2B, but also want our name 'out there' with individuals who might be part of the decision-making process.

I've been cautious of doing it in the past as all of the work we do is confidential - so I didn't really think there would be anything much for me to tweet about. Our web design people have helped me over that particular hurdle, but I still have my reservations.

phill99

jamesperrett wrote: »

One tip - avoid automated software that keeps on repeating the same old messages every few days. There are a few businesses that I've stopped following because most of their messages are just repeats. By all means use software that can send the same message to multiple platforms but avoid any auto repeats.

I agree totally.


The same reported message is a big turn off. Even when you see the same message across different platforms.


The message must be interesting and relevant to each target market.

phill99

trailingspouse wrote: »

Thanks both.

Yes, we are B2B, but also want our name 'out there' with individuals who might be part of the decision-making process.

I've been cautious of doing it in the past as all of the work we do is confidential - so I didn't really think there would be anything much for me to tweet about. Our web design people have helped me over that particular hurdle, but I still have my reservations.

Social Media is a good way to promote your brand and to get customers / potential customers to recognise your brand.


In terms of the content, obviously it couldn't breach confidentiality, but it doesn't have to be about what you do specifically, but could be about what is going on in your industry, relevant research, articles from publications which are relevant etc.

jamesperrett

trailingspouse wrote: »

I've been cautious of doing it in the past as all of the work we do is confidential - so I didn't really think there would be anything much for me to tweet about.

GCHQ handle some pretty confidential information yet their Twitter feed is very active - it seems to be mainly aimed at getting people interested in what they do and potential recruitment. It would be worth a look.