As a social media manager for a brand, let alone a B2B tech brand, you’re expected to become an instant expert in all things social. LinkedIn lead generation, Instagram Live, Twitter polls, and probably some messenger app only your Gen Z nephew knows about. Social is constantly evolving and if you’re not up to speed on the latest app capabilities, design trends, and industry chatter, you won’t be able to keep the pace. There’s no way to predict the future of social. There are, however, some best practices to keep your B2B tech brand’s social media presence in tip-top shape, ready for whatever the future holds. Here are seven successful tips for B2B tech brands to maintain a stellar social media presence.
1. Get Ahead of the Game
Craft enough content for one or multiple editorial calendars. Make sure to consider critical internal events, product releases, industry conferences, and holidays when creating these calendars. You’ll have to intertwine these stories across blogs, white papers, and company news announcements to ensure your brand’s latest news is evenly disseminated across all platforms. Plan the content for these posts at least two weeks, if not 30-days, in advance for a smooth promotion timeline.
2. Engage Employees
You want brand ambassadors and influencers, right? Ever think they’re right under your nose – or right outside of your office door? Maybe they are. Employees can be an organization’s most valuable (and untapped) asset when it comes to strengthening its brand. Encourage your employees to share your brand’s content to further establish credibility and authenticity. After all, people follow and listen to humans – whether they’re friends, colleagues, or strangers with whom they happen to share similar qualities.
If certain news can’t be said or shared by employees, not to worry. It’s nothing a little cross-company social media training can’t fix. Ensuring your employees know what to post during a conference, company acquisition, or new hire process should be the first step before making any public moves. Hold a quick meeting to discuss social media best practices, like what images and language best represent your brand for the given situation.
3. Paint Your Brand’s Picture
Visuals matter on every single social media platform. Attention-grabbing visuals with no signs of corporate feels are optimal. A study by OKDork and BuzzSumo analyzed 100 million articles and found that including an image with a post on Facebook more than tripled the number of shares that post received, while Twitter shares more than doubled. Pro tip: limit the text on photos. Facebook and Instagram will reject paid advertisements with text on more than 20% of the image.
4. Customize and Optimize by Platform
One image or video can’t be shared effectively across every social media platform. Each has unique guidelines that require social media managers to differentiate content. To adhere to these guidelines, cut your images and videos to the correct dimensions and requirements for each platform. Think of the user experience as a whole, especially audio. Designing for sound-off optimization entails a few best practices like closed captions, high-definition video quality, and accompanying copy that gives a brief introduction to what the viewer is watching. Make sure to implement those tips for the sanity of your audience.
5. Peek at Your Competitors
To stay ahead of competitors, you have to know what they’re doing in the first place. Look at what they’re creating and sharing on social media. To take this one step further, also check out what industry-leading brands are sharing. Follow them, subscribe to their newsletters, and use their knowledge share to better educate and inform your brand’s social media strategy.
6. Give Your Brand a Voice
While tougher for B2B tech marketers – who often work with industry jargon – establishing a conversational brand voice on social media is crucial. If your brand has more of a “graphic-tee-and-cargo-shorts” vibe, steer clear of words that reflect a suit and tie mentality. The wording in your social copy needs to mimic your other posts and resonate with your audience. This works best on social as it adds to the human element mentioned in Tip #2.
7. Stay Agile
Platforms, content, and audience-targeting capabilities are going to change in the next five hours, days, years, or all of the above. Don’t get too comfortable with whatever content strategy works for your audience today. Part of being a B2B tech brand while maintaining a stellar social media presence is your ability to roll with the punches – that means jumping through the necessary tech and social media update hoops and adapting to change at a moment’s notice. The world of social moves quickly. So too should you.
Don’t let these tips intimidate you. More importantly, don’t view this as a checklist of how to keep your brand’s social stamina up and running with the best of them. These tips are much more than that – they’ll help you maintain a fresh, stellar social media presence and take your brand to new heights.
