Twitter & Facebook for B2B

[Rob S]

Had a quick search, but couldn't find a thread on this previously.

I work for a company who sell products to garages. Over the last few years we have seen a steady 10% increase in our turnover. However not for the last financial year, where we just did the same as the previous year.

We have been using a combination of personal visiting and email marketing, but I am wondering if we should add Facebook and Twitter.

Personally I am not convinced that it is appropriate for B2B operations, but I would like to hear from other B2B organisations if they have had any success.

 

[HMF UK Ltd]

Hello,

My name is Nick and I am the Public Relations and Marketing Manager for an SME B2B company based in Southampton. Despite having a degree and previous experience in B2C PR, I have only just these last few weeks come to realise why the majority of social media sites are an intergal part of any business.

In such a fast-paced digital media landscape, it is hardly a surprise that the power of the internet has such influence on the business world. Social media has been dominating the internet's social scene since Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg founded social networking phenomenon, Facebook. Since then, the expansion of social media has been extraordinary with the likes of Twitter, Google +, Instagram and LinkedIn becoming major aspects of the 21st century.

Nevertheless, these sites have progressed to the extent where even businesses are recognising that social networking is becoming an integral tool for their organisation. Even here, at Hampshire Mezzanine Floors, a Business to Business (B2B) orientated company, we are able to utilise these social media sites in order to communicate with target audiences, including customers and competitors. (as well as keep an eye on our staff and job applicants!)

We are now active on Google +, LinkedIn with Twitter and Facebook being introduced hopefull next week. We post a wide range of regular updates of what is happening at Hampshire Mezzanine Floors, from internal news such as changes to our team to links to our case study page where you can read all about our latest work. Moreover, world-leading digital networking video site YouTube is going to have a significant impact on HMF's digital, providing our target audiences with the opportunity to see videos of what we are able to do.

We set up these sites primarily to aid our SEO (google rankings/trafficing etc) however have found that it is also a good way of simply getting your name out as well as building relationships and communicating with many professionals and organisations that you normally would not get the chance to spend so much time communicating with.

I hope this helps and please do not hesitate to contact me with anymore questions you may have.

Kind Regards

 

[The Wholesale Forums]

Hi,

Getting your business in social networks are now a must, even if you are just a corporation. Main thing is, you may not have an increase of sales, but your presence will be known and your business no longer limits you to just a few thousand audiences, since social media reaches millions.

Treat them as tools to market your business to a wider audience, that is also a chance to connect to your clients, or better yet new potential customers, as they could communicate with you first hand if they have queries and such. They may not be new customers for now but there is a chance that they know people who are interested in your business. Getting that good image in socials could do more wonders as long as you use them right.

You could check these blogs as a guide on how you could use social media to your advantage. Hope they help you out.

http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/blog/social-media-selling/
http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/blog/linkedin-group/

All the best,
Erik

 

[Wavecrest Ltd]

We use both twitter (mainly) and Facebook (to a lesser degree) for our business.

As with most things in life, the more effort you put in the more you are likely to achieve.

I have spent a fair bit of time over the last year or so building up my twitter following (it's just passed 1100 followers today)

I'm now at the point where it is starting to bring dividends.

My next task is to try and emulate this with our Facebook account which was only started a couple of weeks ago.

Good luck

Glen

 

[profscooter]

It's all about revealing a bit more about the people behind the company. Twitter is great for this and to a lesser extent Facebook, since the policies changed there and not everyone will see every post you make, whereas Twitter is not restricted in that way. Some sizeable companies near me who have avoided social media for many years just came on board this year and are making a lot of their new presence. These days I think people automatically look for a social media button on a web site, so they can connect better with the company they are dealing with or looking to deal with.