Many of our clients hire someone to manage their social media feeds for them.  This is a viable alternative to hiring an employee specifically for one task or to overburdening an existing, busy employee with another responsibility.  There are some great freelancers and businesses that can manage a social feed and help your company achieve their online marketing goals.  Hiring someone to take care of your social media doesn’t mean you don’t have to participate.  Social media experts are just that – experts in writing, posting, analyzing social media but they’re not experts in your company or industry.  You have to be involved in the process.

We’ve walked into businesses that have lost their social account passwords, have had accounts blocked by the platform admin or have found that the person doing the posting was attracting the wrong kind of attention online.  Social media is not a ‘set it and forget it’ marketing task.  Success on social media requires guidance, input, and support from many levels in an organization.  Not many B2B businesses would book a booth at a trade show then just expect a display, a full complement of staff and all the sales materials to magically appear.  The same is true for social media – it’s a task that requires management and attention even if someone is posting for you.

Here are some ways that everyone in the company can contribute to the success of your company’s social presence.

Corporate Leadership

The corporate strategy, mission and values are important to share as part of your social presence.  This is how potential customers learn more about you and current customers are reassured that they have the right partner.  Making changes?  Share that.  Business successes?  Share that.  Common struggles?  Share that, too.  People want to do business with people, not nameless faceless businesses.  Your presence on social is a good way to control the narrative for your company.  By the way, it also helps when you’re hiring because candidates will evaluate their fit based on your online presence even before they apply.

Sales

The sales team, undoubtedly, have a lot to gain when social media is successful.  Brand awareness, lead generation and after-sale service – all stages in the sales process – can be supported by a strong social media presence.  What most people forget is that sales also has to supply the social manager with information from the field to aim the social feed in the right direction.  Salespeople have a unique connection to your customers and marketplace that need to be shared with social managers:

• Commonly asked questions (and answers!)
• Market insights or trending hot topics from the field
• Industry media sources
• Industry influencers on social
• Current business-related events
• Presence at industry trade shows and conferences
• Sales cycles throughout the year
• Customer purchasing cycles that are influenced by regularly recurring events

The sales team can also be strong supporters of the social feed by building their own social presence on your platform of choice and actively sharing and engaging with the corporate feeds.

Manufacturing/Production/R&D

Using social does not mean sharing proprietary information or business secrets.  An active, connected feed can allow a business to highlight their product’s competitive advantages, point out tips or ask customers for feedback on a proposed innovation.  This is where B2B businesses can take a lesson from their consumer driven counterparts.  If you’re really connected to your target market on social, why not engage them in the research process?  Ask them what they think of a product change or a proposed feature.  If you’ve solved one problem for them, maybe they’ll trust you enough to tell you about another problem they have.  Also, photos of the inner workings of a piece of equipment (without sharing secrets) can be a big help to the sales team.

Customer Service

How does this work?  Why won’t it work?  What else can it do?  For many of our B2B customers, the sale is just the start of their relationship with a customer.  Whether your product or service is complicated or meant to last a long time, you can be working with your customers intensely or over a long period so being good at that connection is important – and social media can help.  If you’ve got great customer service or after-sale care, that can be a big selling feature and reduce the risk for a new customer.  If you can answer common questions on your social feed, sales teams and customer service can use those videos, handouts, or posts to support customers quickly and easily.  Having customers follow your feed may even eliminate some of that after-sale service completely!  Brainstorming what people need to use your products or services easily and productively can help both social media managers and your team.  If you have a dealer network, they love having all of your support resources right on their phone in a social platform ready to share with a customer having a problem.

Human Resources

We mentioned recruitment earlier and social can be a big support to that.  What do current employees think of you as an employer?  Sharing those stories and having current employees actively supporting your social feed on their own accounts shows that they like where they work and they’re likely to actively support your recruitment efforts when they have the chance.  In today’s labour market, an active social feed that shares your company’s story is worth the investment.