Social Media Tips for the Wholesale Industry

BtoB Magazine’s latest research report on B2B social media marketing shows that many B2B marketers are moving their traditional media budget allocations to social media. Seventy-one percent are moving up to 10 percent of traditional media budget allocations to social media, 14 percent are moving 20 percent, with the average increase in social media budgets at approximately 11 percent. If you are thinking of increasing your social media budget, the insights from this research may help you improve your social media program.

The B2B Magazine research results indicated there may be room for improvement when it comes to social media involvement. Sixty-seven percent of the companies surveyed said they were “moderately involved or less” in social media marketing. While less than 10 percent said they were “not satisfied” with their social media programs, 60 percent were still not measuring effectiveness in terms of ROI.

Wholesalers, importers and manufacturers, can get excellent benefits from social media by refining their B2B social media programs starting this fall. A few suggestions based on the information from this research are listed below.

Define Social Media Objectives

The BtoB Magazine research shows a range of marketing goals that social media can help realize. Just look at the percentages associated to eight of the top ten.

This suggests companies that properly define their social media objectives have a greater chance of realizing success. When you properly define your objectives, identifying the right social media platforms becomes clear because of the differences in expectation from community participants. The report identified the most important social media networks shown below.

The report indicated the following about the tone and style required for individual social media platforms.

• Facebook is more informal. You can achieve greater success with interaction when using video and graphics as opposed to text only updates.
• LinkedIn requires greater group participation. You should ask more in-depth questions and generate discussions.
• The audience on Twitter wants information quickly. Short, concise material (like lists) gets shared more often.

Assess Strengths and Weaknesses

It always helps for wholesalers and manufacturers to define their own strengths and weaknesses when developing a B2B social media strategy, including which areas social media can support.

For instance, in the wholesale industry, sales leads are almost always acquired through trade shows. This process has always been successful in providing a great volume of prospects. Brand development, site traffic, and your website’s presence in search engine results are all important tie-ins for social media, and you need to assess your strengths and weaknesses in these areas, capitalizing on the strengths and shoring up the weaknesses.

Identify Competitor Strategies for Ideas

Study the social media channels your competitors are using and the frequency of their posts and updates. Further investigation into each competitor’s profile can reveal interesting information. Look for the following:

• Frequency of posts and updates
• Interaction in updates (comments, likes, mentions, etc)
• Percentage of company-specific updates

The information from your observations can provide useful information about a competitor’s social media involvement and help generate ideas for your content and messaging strategy.

Listen and Understand the Community

Patience is key in any social media program. The average time it took B2B marketers in the survey to become effective in their most important social media channel was 13 months. So, adjust your expectations accordingly.

The chart above shows that building effectiveness in social media is like any real-world relationship you value − it takes time. Wholesalers and manufacturers should research and listen carefully to potential audiences in targeted communities to help determine their own ability to achieve designated objectives.

Document All Data

Be methodical in collecting data that can help you make better decisions in the future. This might include:

• Details of the update (context, links or no links, time of the update)
• Type of update (image, text, video)
• Reach, mentions, likes, comments, and other available interaction types

The ability to find patterns of success in the regular stream of social media updates will help improve your effectiveness as your social media program evolves.

Measure and Evaluate

The B2B Magazine report indicated 60 percent of B2B marketers polled still did not have measurement in place to establish some form of ROI for their social media programs. Goal setting should be defined based on objectives established in the beginning. Below are some potential measurements you can consider for different objectives:

Brand Development:

• New visitor growth and quality of new visitor growth
• Third party mentions, references, and links acquired
• Growth in branded and non-branded keyword referrals from organic search

Lead Generation:

• Sales-ready leads acquired.
• Lead nurturing prospects developed
• Assisted conversions (see Conversions in Google Analytics) attributed to social media performance

Search Engine Optimization:

• Growth in keywords sending referral traffic
• Inbound links generated
• Conversions made through organic search 

In conclusion, be aware that social media effectiveness ties directly to the quality of content provided in your strategic assets (blog posts, graphics, marketing collateral) and your communication stream (updates, status messages, timing).

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