Your Guide to B2B Social Media Marketing as a Technical Expert
Technical Experts with Personality
Our attention span shortens each year. Marketers have 8 seconds to deliver their hook. That's why memes, short videos, bold photos, and quick Canva posts get more 'likes' than informative content.
But, if you are only doing social media for the 'likes' then you aren't 'likely' in B2B professional services industry marketing.
In professional services marketing, social media is just one of the tools to convey a broader message about your firm’s expertise. Your social media marketing strategy should be a mix of content:
educational guides
white papers
ebooks
blog posts
thought leadership or research reports
links to articles, press releases, or other external mentions
quick reminders
invitations to other marketing vehicles such as webinars or trade shows
lead generation magnets to capture information
case studies or win profiles
photos or videos
infographics
service descriptions
company attributes
and a place to showcase your most important asset, the people who will serve your potential clients and customers.
Social media for professional services firms should not be a constant cold pitch: "Buy my stuff right now!" or a mix of personal memes that include toilet humor or something your 8-year-old would deem 'Tik Tok' worthy.
Nor should your social media presence and feed be too dull. Granted, I love an excellent research study, but your feed should reflect your brand personality. It's ok to have a distinct tone of voice and imagery and mix up your content.
And no, you do not need to post every day on every social media platform or channel possible. A focused social media strategy that aligns with your overall digital marketing strategy is far more effective.
If you sell high-end accounting services to Fortune 500 companies, SnapChat isn't likely the platform for you. Instead, focus on the social media platforms that best reach your target audience and match the tone of your services.
How do I tell my social media story?
Experiment with your language, format, and tone. I have a social media persona that is much more outgoing than my authentic self. My social self is bold, sarcastic, and looks at life with a glass half full of glitter.
As I plan out content, that social persona voices her opinion on how it gets displayed. It's not perfect. I experiment. I test, try, fail, tweak, learn. Mix it up.
My value isn't based on the number of likes, shares, and subscriptions I get.
Telling my social story.
I am helping a client with marketing storytelling on social media. It is so easy for someone to tell you what to do, but it's much harder to do it.
Hence, I created my own social story to share as an example:
Check it out here: LinkedIn Social Story.
It's quick, eye-catching, and tells who I am, what I do, a bit of my personality, and what action I should take in about 20 seconds.
What's your social story? Share it with me via LinkedIn.
