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B2B Social Media Marketing -

sometimes overwhelming,

but definitely worthwhile

Companies have many more options than in the past to
build and give distinction to a brand digitally, although experts there, so it’s possible to go technically deeper
the behavioral patterns of potential customers constant- into details; and it is important that companies actively
ly change with new technologies introduced. Who is engage a lot sooner in the buying process, then via the
interested today in a product or service, is usually doing traditional distribution channels.
research online in advance, rather than turning directly
to the sales, and this familiar, private behavior is also Companies that still feel new to social media marketing,
reflected in the business world. however, should take it slow. It makes more sense to
set up and maintain one channel first, before starting
immediately with many that sooner or later go to waste.
Companies should be prepared to have to convince
their customers of their product, even before there has Because a dead account, for example in Facebook,
been a first sales contact, trying to make sure that there usually makes a worse impression than having no pro-
are recommendations from like-minded people in their file at all. My second tip is to link content marketing and
favor on social media. Generally, salespeople have to social media marketing, as it is ultimately all about pre-
engage in new ways and know exactly through which senting potential customers content that creates de-
channels they can find their target audience and how to mand, whether through YouTube videos or interesting,
start a dialogue. product-specific blog articles.

Winning a contract doesn’t depend nowadays solely on Talking to the right people, about the topics they
the persuasiveness of the salesperson, but the compre- are interested in
hensive corporate presentation: Those who want to
maintain the loyalty of existing partners, can do so via Social media marketing is a great way to increase the
LinkedIn; companies with very complex products benefit reach for target-oriented contributions. According to the
from YouTube; Facebook on the other hand is more latest ranking factors of Searchmetrics, so-called social
likely suitable for the dialogue with potential customers signals, which are interactions on Facebook, Google+
and fans of the brand, the behavior pattern of Google+ or Twitter, are still important factors to increase the
is slightly different than on Facebook as there are more ranking of a website on Google as well as reach.
6 Asian eMarketing - May 2016: The impact of Social Media & Storytelling, Native & Contextual Advertising, on Content Marketing
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