May 31, 2016
Great B2B social media content has many facets. We often hear about high-quality visual social content that can double – or even triple – engagement, the principle of ‘shattering’ larger assets or cutting video to work better in-channel on social. However, the unsung hero is often the copy, the message. It is a real talent condensing a complex B2B offering into 140 characters or less, making it punchy, inviting and attention grabbing, whilst still communicating the key message.
So, how do you build B2B social messaging that is sure to deliver? Here are the steps that you should be taking to get the most from your social copy:
Build a matrix
Putting a messaging matrix together allows you to line up all your key messages and themes to your audience. These can tie back to core trends, industry topics and business objectives – ultimately informing the content writing decisions and allowing you to ensure that what is being created ties into the bigger picture.
Align content
Now that you have a matrix with clear themes and topics you can begin align your existing content so that you have a bedrock of assets that relate to your business objectives and key messages. Organising content in this way ensures that you can easily pull a piece of relevant content or create something new that has a clear purpose.
Go audience-first
By putting your customer at the heart of your messaging two things will happen: you will be speaking a language that buyers want to hear and adding true value. Moreover, it will stop you from falling into the age old trap of talking content. What are their pain points? What are the true industry issues? How do you help resolve them? This is how you talk in social (at least at the beginning).
You need to nurture
It is true that ALL content has a place – yes, even those tech spec brochures – but those places differ greatly. You need to match your content to the correct part of that user’s journey. You don’t lead with product or offering – you lead with the audience-first piece – addressing true issues and helping people, adding value and supplying engaging ‘top of funnel’ content. Once you nurture people along the line then there is a time and place for the more business/solution led content and, yes, even a brochure.
Separate awareness and demand gen
In B2B there will always be a need to blend awareness and demand generation on social. The separation of these two practices doesn’t just come down to the scale, the targeting and the overarching message. There are some nuances amongst the micro-messaging that you also need to be aware of. You should be asking yourself who the audience is with these different messages in mind – if you are going for awareness are there key influencers that you are trying to reach, as opposed to prospects? If so which hashtags may they be monitoring that your customers are not?
Planning your social content in this way will ensure that the key messages land with the right audience – once the above is combined with smart targeting you will be an unstoppable force in B2B social marketing.