Using Social Media – Personal vs. Business

Using Social Media: Personal vs. Business
Have you seen too many trolls? Fake people want to connect with you? Watched the train wreck of a business misusing social media? Many of our B2B clients shy away from using social media because they’ve had bad personal experiences. Without question, social media can bring out the worst in people and companies. On the contrary, I continue to be amazed by the connections that are possible for B2B clients who put some effort into building a social presence.
Last week, I was browsing through a client’s corporate social account to see how I could make it better. The platform offered up people the company should connect with, so I did some work finding industry influencers, companies with a similar target market and potential dealers. I was shocked to see that, right in their bios, potential dealers and customers stated the size and focus of their businesses. This social feed was a goldmine of potential leads! The client had to do some digging to qualify the leads but it was, by far, the best lead source we’d developed in months of executing other marketing tactics.
The negatives that we see in social media as consumers are not always the same when we look at social as a tool for our business. Here are some things to consider when deciding whether or not to invest in your business’s social presence.
Micro Communities
I am continually surprised by the communities that social media platforms have facilitated. Did you know that grader operators have their own groups on Facebook? The agriculture industry loves Twitter and YouTube with region-specific hashtags to help you find them. Indigenous suppliers are using TikTok to connect. Engineering and construction industries are both active on LinkedIn. I’ve said this before (Social Media from a New Perspective) that when you consider getting into social, the platform matters. I’m also seeing that people use different platforms for different aspects of their lives – Facebook for buying and selling, Twitter for news, YouTube for information. Find out where your prospects, industry leaders and suppliers are and start there regardless of what platforms you might use personally. Learning curve? Yes – but you might find a goldmine.
Content Formats
I worked with a client in the IT business. Their clients were not excited about providing testimonials or sharing how their networks were set up. Unlike the fishing camp that I worked with that had customers ready to share their fishing stories and loved sharing the photo of them and their huge catch. Some businesses are not very photogenic and not likely to have ‘shareable’ content. In this case, developing video and photo content for highly visual social platforms is going to be a ton of work. Do you have the time and/or money to invest in creating that content just to feed the social beast? In the case of the IT business, they started to use their social presence in support of their recruitment and retention efforts and building their brand as an employer of choice with potential hires and employees alike. That content was easier to develop and had a bigger payoff for them in a tight labour market. Personally, we all have a phone with photos and video at the ready so we’re creating content for our social accounts easily. What a great surprise when we found that our grader client had an employee who experimented with drone video and operators love watching big equipment videos. In some cases, it’s a bigger investment for your business to create appropriate content for different platforms than the return on investment so be sure you can follow through.
Commentary
One of my clients was putting out a controversial idea for their industry. They’d been approached at meetings by angry people and attacked on social media for saying they supported the idea. The group did NOT want to create an account solely to promote the idea and explain their side of the story – the backlash was severe and, often, cruel. I pushed for them to start a social feed regardless of the trolls:
- We needed to identify supporters who were brave enough to repost their content, detractors who were engaging in meaningful debate and people or organizations that would never accept the new idea regardless of the conversation
- We wanted to have a place to tell the story behind the idea and give people who were in the middle access to information
- We wanted to hear the arguments against the idea so we could either dispel them or make changes to the proposal to accommodate those objections
Despite the heat of the conversations (and a few personal attacks), the feed achieved all of these goals. The trolls showed themselves and made irrational arguments in the face of calm, fact-based debate. The client was able to glean valuable perspectives, information, and ideas from the online debates. People who were on the fence were able to find a wealth of research and data to inform their choice. Don’t get me wrong, this campaign was difficult to manage and tested the resolve of the client, but the payoff was invaluable and immediate.
This is an extreme example but illustrates that social media is not always pretty. People will complain publicly and point out your company’s flaws and missteps. On the other hand, social gives your company a chance to respond publicly and, hopefully, win someone over publicly. Most people shy away from these situations personally but they’re essential in today’s business environment. I always think that it’s better that you know the negative customer comments and have the opportunity to do something than not to hear them at all.
Focus, research, and courage – all necessary to be successful when you dive into social media. Need some help? We can point you in the right direction and reinforce your team to shorten your runway to achieving your social goals.

About the Author: Jill Sauter
Jill is a big picture thinker and Co-Founder of Bench Strength Marketing. She sees things from a different angle and never forgets the goals of your organization.