With a stellar line up of the region’s top social experts including Closer Marketing’s, Emma Bradshaw, specialist LinkedIn trainer, Charlie Whyman and Status Social’s Head of Social Media Management, Jamie Cernick, it promised to be an insightful evening.

Introduced by BMC co-founder Jason Neale and the evening’s regional BMC organiser Robin Bodicoat, we questioned whether social media was really working in a B2B world. Businesses need to get involved, but are not really sure why, how or what their social strategy is. Is it Lead Generation? Thought leadership? Brand awareness? Do people really have a clue?

The reality is, for real results every post should have a purpose.

Enter our experts.

Getting you closer to your B2B audience

Emma Bradshaw, a freelance marketer at Closer Marketing, graduate of the Digital Mums Academy, marketing lecturer at NTU and previously EON’s resident expert in digital optimisation and customer experience talked trends, top tips and setting social strategy.

Which channel is which?

Referencing the recent #DollyPartonChallenge, Emma highlighted the importance of a channel’s personality and how customers expect to be engaged with in the appropriate way. The Street Party, The Art Gallery, The Networking Event, The Water Cooler – where do you want your business to be and for what?

Key trends for 2020 – Trust and transparency

“It’s time to take Tik Tok seriously” advocates Emma, after watching first-hand how digital natives interact online in her role as university lecturer. The short-form mobile video networking platform (formerly known as musical.ly) is taking people by storm with everything from lip syncs to life hacks with its raw and unedited format. Video is winning. The filtered Instagram look is old hat.

Credibly moving conversation into the private space is essential. Tools such as chatbots seamlessly move people into a private conversation around specific topics, building direct engagement with your customer.

“Getting behind the curtain is going to be the most important thing for the next decade. Broadcast ‘spray and pray’ tactics are over, there is a move toward intimacy. You can’t ignore the private conversation. For B2B audiences it is important to focus on how you get invited to the House Party. That takes time and investment.”commented Emma.

Embedding engagement

Emma added: “Get good at stories – advertising in stories is on the rise, look at the way you are creating content and if it is fit for purpose. Rather than broadcasting, make sure your content strategy has engagement embedded within it, making use of polls, encouraging user generated content, Twitter chats, competitions and useful longer form content – such as webinars, videos, subscription models for specific subject themes.”

What can social do for B2B marketing?

With an estimated 20-500 digital touchpoints encountered before a buying decision is made, this presents a huge opportunity, as well as challenges for B2B marketers.

Opportunities exist in social listening, competitor analysis, influencing buying decisions and reinforcing your ‘Why?’ through brand awareness, not to mention benefits of enhancing SEO and attracting and retaining talent to your business.

The challenge is creating a genuine and authentic connection with your audience, where Emma walked through her CLOSER model which helps businesses do just that.

CORE, LISTEN, OBSERVE, SELECT, ENGAGE, REVIEW – Visit Closer Marketing for more details.

Emma left us with a final thought from Seth Godin: “Our job is to connect to people, to interact with people in a way that leaves them better than we found them.”  Simples!

Starting conversations which lead to sales

Charlie Whyman, LinkedIn strategist, influencer and former international sales and marketing manager for global businesses was up next. Agreeing about creating engagement, saying: “It is not about leads, it’s about starting a conversation with your market. Your potential customers need to know, like and trust you. And, you need to stand out from the crowd in a meaningful way – that is difficult.”

B2B or B2C it’s is still H2H

“The goal of marketing is to start conversations which lead to sales. Now is the time to talk with the people in your market, not just talk at them – invite them into the conversation. Negotiating and getting a response through LinkedIn gives a more human response,” says Charlie.

Citing a case study of a global laser measurement company, RIEGL, Charlie walked though their success on LinkedIn, talking about how social proof is the biggest motivator as their clients love their products and data, so will share, like, discuss them on line, ultimately giving them “free marketing”.

How to win on LinkedIn

“RIEGL took advantage of their fan loyalty and created a community of fans and advocates. They also empowered employees to showcase their skills, knowledge and brilliance – playing into their zone of genius. Lastly, they create content people really want to engage with, achieving 40-50.0000 impression per month with no advertising, but getting people to buy into the products and services. This proves the power of LinkedIn as the place to be for business development.“added Charlie.

Free marketing – Top tips for LinkedIn

Charlie shared a number of top tips for making LinkedIn work harder for businesses:

• Ensure content is within “The Zone of Relevance” for your audience, make people understand how it will help them with their job.
• Don’t assume – learn about your audience, take that knowledge into your audience, your pipeline and your social media content.
• EVERYONE needs a LinkedIn company page – It gives you the ability to get in front of people you wouldn’t normally. Make it accurate, representative and honest – (Spend about 10% of your time as a small biz, 20-30% if larger business and the rest on your personal profiles).
• Quality over quantity – It is not about the number of followers; it is about the quality of the content that you post and level of engagement you create.
• Amplify your personal profile – You are 19 X more likely to attract new leads from your personal profile because you are communicating with people.

In summary, Charlie shared: “LinkedIn is not a thing that you should fear, it should support you to create a dialogue with your market, social listening, build authority and credibility, create a community of fans and advocates. Magic is in the follow up, nurture, creating a community.”

Winning over your B2B audience

Head of Social Media Management, at Status Social, Jamie Cernik echoed earlier sentiments and warned against “digital leafleting” and forgetting the “social” part of social media.

Hailing from one of the first social agencies in the UK and having generated in excess of £2million of business through social media, Jamie ran through some practical examples of customer interactions that deliver results.

Jamie said: “If you want to sell, you need to inspire and create an emotional response. If you don’t prove that in social media content, you are not giving a reason to buy.” Citing two extremes “The Hard Sell” or “The Friend Zone” he suggested the sweet spot, the normal social selling space was somewhere in the middle.

Finding common ground

According to Jamie: “Everyone is hustling on LinkedIn, predominantly trying to achieve core objectives – lead generation or recruitment.  The advantage of advanced filters on LinkedIn enables you to use the “The Sherlock Homes” technique. People reveal social signals about themselves which you can capitalise on to avoid being stuck in the ‘friend zone’. You can use these signals to connect on a human level – flatter an alumni, find a human connection of the same school, university or football team of choice.”

Understand your audience…

…is the key to starting a conversation.

Giving examples of what was essentially social stalking, Jamie presented a no-bullsh*t approach to winning a social security and global hacking consultant as a client. He also shared examples of sharing blog posts via Twitter which led to a Blind Sports Equipment retailer making contact with the core decision makers via Twitter and subsequently getting into 11 premiership football clubs by getting out of the friend zone and being part of the buying discussion.

We have no content!

Many of Jamie’s clients feel that they have no content, but this doesn’t mean that they have nothing to say. Everyone is able to meet people at their level, chat informally on Twitter. By understanding who you are talking to you can match their tone of voice and generate authentic conversations.

Tips to generate content

Jamie concluded with some content creation pointers, make it:

• Entertaining – create a response in people, entertain them.
• Inspirational – emotive, life changing, give people a reason to champion it, can people get behind it?
• Add value – what can you give away for free? Are there tips, information, advice within your area of expertise you can share?

To summarise the whole session in a nutshell, “Humanise your content and you’ll go far.”

Any thoughts you would like to add on social media success for B2B marketers?

Business Marketing Club (BMC) events offer a great opportunity for both client-side and agency side to come together, share ideas and meet like-minded marketers, while socialising with a drink and bite to eat, in an enjoyable and informative environment.

To join the next East Midlands event visit: http://bit.ly/2Hwoc9s.

The post B2B social media – Posts with purpose appeared first on Big Old House.

Donald Ward, Head of Technical & Recycling at Ward said:

“We’ve recently made significant investments across our business and now is the right time to really showcase our capabilities through a robust marketing, PR and social media strategy. We are keen to build a stronger presence as national waste, recycling and resource management experts in key sectors such as construction and demolition, as well as raising our profile regionally.

“We were initially introduced to Rachael at Big Old House by our digital agency Cite, on a copywriting basis. We were immediately impressed with her ideas, writing skills, ability to quickly understand the different aspects our business and relevant industry experience.”

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Specialists in metal recycling waste management Ward prevents over 90% of the rubbish it collects from ending up in landfill from its four recycling, waste and metal processing plants in the East Midlands.

Big Old House founder, Rachael van Oudheusden, added:

“Working with Ward is a real privilege and I’m really excited to be getting more involved in helping grow the business. Dealing with everything from metal recycling, office waste and skip hire to hazardous construction waste and land remediation, there is always something new to discover and a different story to tell at Ward. We’ve got plenty to go on to shape and deliver a trade and corporate PR and social media strategy, in tandem with other digital marketing activity delivered by Cite.”

An ISO accredited, fourth generation family-run business, established over 70 years ago, Ward now has an annual turnover of £120 million, employs over 300 people locally and runs a fleet of more than 80 modern vehicles.

For more information visit Ward Recycling www.ward.com.

The post Ward Recycling wastes no time signing up Big Old House for PR and social media support appeared first on Big Old House.

There is an ever growing list of social media shortcuts to abbreviate interactions. These save time and help to fit in as many points as possible into posts, to encourage conversations. However, keeping track can be a challenge.

Sprout Social has kindly curated the 75 Most Important Social Media Acronyms used in marketing today. Not only do they apply cross Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus and LinkedIn, they relate across all Business to Business and Business to Consumer activity and every business marketeer is likely to encounter at least some of these abbreviations in day to day life.

From encouraging conversations on Twitter through to general day to day business terms, as well as the technical stuff, marketers and businesses need to know the latest terminology to engage with their audiences and the agencies they work with.

 
The doctor should be consulted before starting the dosage. prescription for cialis appalachianmagazine.com Life without intercourse will be boring cheap sildenafil and usual. The anonymity of transacting on-line is also an enormous plus, particularly for males who are still a baby, toddler, or even cheapest cialis http://appalachianmagazine.com/2017/10/24/deer-disease-affecting-southwest-virginia/ a teenager. The calming influence of Ed Joyce, Paul Stirling and Niall O’Brien in the http://appalachianmagazine.com/category/featured/page/28/?filter_by=popular cialis tadalafil online middle order adds value to their batting stability.
Do you know which campaigns are most successful at creating UGC or what tactics are having the best impact on your CR? What are the TOS of your ESP? Is your POTD generating worthwhile PVs?

AFAIK if you don’t keep up with the latest lingo you are seriously living in FOMO.

ICYMI or you’re SYH and thinking WTF? NVM…Get in touch for a conversation in full sentences about getting a handle on your next marketing project.

[Image credit Indigo Digital]

The post Do you know your social media shorthand? appeared first on Big Old House.

The helpful chaps at Hootsuite have pulled together a really handy guide to working out which social media sites are best for you, depending on your target audience…

https://blog.hootsuite.com/top-social-media-sites-matter-to-marketers/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=owned_social&utm_campaign=social_hootsuite

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With facts and stats for You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat it gives a succinct overview of each social site or platform and some really good examples of who is doing it well. There’s also some great social media insight and infographics from Growing Social Media.

It’s not always possible to be all things to all people with so many channels to choose from.  Successful social strategy is about picking a few targeted channels and doing them well, with tailored content and targeted messaging.

Get in touch to chat through your social strategy or if you need a hand crafting compelling content to keep audiences engaged.

The post Which social media platform is best for you? appeared first on Big Old House.

According to the study by Ipsos Connect, titled “Facebook and Instagram: Motivations and Mindsets”, Instagram is a place where people look for insider perspectives and insights, giving them a window into a different world, while Facebook represents their real world, the people and perspectives they care about and want to discuss.

Facebook IQ Researcher Vicki Molina-Estolano, highlighted the main finding of the report was that Facebook better satisfies people’s need for empowerment, recognition and connection, while Instagram more strongly fulfils their desire for fun, relaxation and discovery.

“On Instagram, people follow celebrities, get DIY inspiration and are visually transported to new places – while on Facebook, the primary appeal is connecting with family and friends.”
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The report looked at types of content, different user demographics and how millennials are interacting with both social media platforms. It seems that from a marketing messaging point of view Facebook is where people are looking for fact based, opinion led, personal content and Instagram is where they go to escape and dream about the what if.

So craft your content carefully…keep Facebook ‘friends and family’ friendly and inspire and influence through Instagram….or drop us a line and we’ll help with your copywriting.

Source: “Facebook and Instagram: Motivations and Mindsets” by Ipsos Connect (Facebook-commissioned online survey of 7,809 people ages 18–64 in AU, BR, FR, JP, UK and US who use Facebook and/or Instagram at least weekly), May 2016. Among survey respondents, 5,642 use both Facebook and Instagram, 1,802 use Facebook only, and 365 use Instagram only. The study also included 120 qualitative participants. Data is on average across all markets and refer to people who use both feeds unless otherwise noted.

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Founded by local entrepreneur Rachael van Oudheusden, Big Old House provides senior level freelance PR and media strategy, marketing consultancy and copywriting to creative agencies wanting ad hoc support, as well as direct to business clients wanting external B2B or technical support and flexibility on fees.

Noticing that there was a shortage of Account Director level expertise across the East Midlands, Big Old House was created to meet demand from business and agencies needing an affordable service from a flexible, reliable and experienced source. It aims to provide a senior strategic resource that can quickly grasp a brief and can run with a project.

As a former business mentor for Business in the Community and on the back of a 20 year PR and marketing career, spanning Head of PR, Account Director, client management and copywriting roles, Big Old House founder Rachael van Oudheusden was eager to go it alone, but not quite ready to leave the agency buzz behind, so this option offered the best of both worlds for her own aspirations and for clients.

Asked why Big Old House was established, Rachael van Oudheusden, said: “I was keen to branch out on my own and saw an opportunity in the high number of creative and comms agencies that often need additional technical copywriting skills. Also, many agencies struggle with recruiting senior level team members, so can find themselves with a temporary shortage of strategic knowledge and support whilst finding the right candidate. There seems to be a particular shortage of candidates with B2B or technical experience, including building and construction, manufacturing, leisure and public interest campaigns, so that’s where Big Old House can fill a gap.”
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“Plus, many small businesses want external marketing support, but don’t have the budget for big agency fees; that’s what people will get from Big Old House – someone that really gets it and can deliver results against commercial objectives, but without the commitment of permanent new hires or big agency budgets.”

On the choice of name for her new venture, she added: “Why Big Old House? Well it’s the meaning behind my surname (sort of). Plus, it’s what my hard work goes into and where we’re based. Plus, experience has shown that van Oudheusden is just too hard for people to say or spell!”

For more information on Big Old House visit: www.bigoldhouse.com

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