Social media is becoming more and more prevalent in marketing today.  With so many different social media platforms out there, it can be hard to know which to use, which to ignore, and how to go about leveraging all these different media outlets. Personally, I think it is important to make use of all the social sites and their specific features. You want to be sure that any potential customer or client will be able to find you and your name where ever they look, otherwise they will find a competitor. Social media is an easy and free way to get your business’ name and message out there, so there is no excuse to not be taking advantage of these simple marketing instruments.

Maybe you don’t spend ⅓ of your life online like I do. Well, I won’t judge you for your lack of social media knowledge if you don’t judge me for spending so much of my time staring at a computer screen. Instead, I will share with you some of my great knowledge on my favorite social media sites and how you can use them for business purposes (not just sharing pictures of baby/pet with your mom).  In the first part of my post, we will look at the two most widely used sites, Linkedin and Facebook.

Full disclosure, I had so much to say on this subject I decided to post the second half at the end of the week, when I look at Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter, so stay tuned on Friday!

Linkedin

Linkedin was built to be a professional networking site, so it is easy to see how you would use it for business purposes. It is an easy way to introduce yourself to other professionals in your field and expand your network. When someone looks at your company’s Linkedin page they should be able to get a good idea of what you do.  Brian Carter has a great article on Social Media Examiner in which he discusses 7 Ways to Prospect for New Customers with Linkedin.  Brian provides some great insight and a few new tips that you may not of heard before, so I figured I’d share.

Your Linkedin profile is another aspect of the social site that has been used as a great recruiting tool. It will track how ‘complete’ your profile is and suggest what you can do to improve it. The more detailed your profile is, the better Linkedin will be able to match you to possible job opportunities.  If you are in the B2B space and not leveraging Linkedin’s capabilities, you are already losing out on potential opportunities.

Facebook
Facebook is obviously the most popular social media site out there, with over 900 million active users worldwide.  It is no longer just an outlet for college kids to share their photos from the weekend. Everyone is on facebook, if you’re not, you basically don’t exist. One of the first things you’ll see in the search results when looking for a person or organization is their Facebook page, so you want to make sure your company isn’t going unnoticed in this space.

Since Facebook isn’t a professional site you shouldn’t feel like you have to keep it all business on your company’s FB page. This is the perfect place to show your customers and clients the faces behind the company.  Use it as an opportunity to share what your office environment is like. For example, at my organization, we share photos from our company events, funny things that happen in the office from day-to-day, and of course all the dogs that come and visit the office. This is also a great recruiting tool. When I found this job opening on Linkedin, the first thing I did was Google our organization and the Facebook page came up.  I browsed through some of our photos and posts to get a better feel for what I would be joining. I found pictures from cookouts, summer parties, and games played in the office. This showed me the atmosphere and culture, revealing it as probably a really great place to work which is one of the reasons I chose to work here!

On Friday, August 10, I will continue my post with a look at Tumblr, Reddit and Twitter, three sites that have very different purposes and audiences, but will provide B2B organizations higher visibility within their target market.