Frontline Perspectives

A fellow marketer asked me why we didn’t automatically link our updates to Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts, pushing our content out to all of our social media networks with one click.

My answer was simple. Although this seems like the most efficient process, I’ve found that linking different sites actually stunts your social media growth because it also links your timing. Each social media tool has a different best practice in terms of the numbers of posts, status updates or tweets per hour and should be scheduled accordingly. Posting on your sites at the same time, every time is not in your best interest.

For example, Twitter is more effective the more you use it. The more you tweet, the more followers you gain. The exception to this rule? The average click through rate per hour decreases after 2 links – meaning, if you want someone to click through to your valuable thought leadership, that should be your only tweet for an hour. If you’re syndicating general information that you don’t necessarily own, tweet as often as you like.

Facebook is different. To get your posts liked on Facebook, only post once every other day. Unlike Twitter, which by nature is a constant stream of updates, Facebook users are more easily bombarded by information and less likely to like your information if you send it too frequently.

Each social media tool has a different best practice in terms of the time of day that posts, status updates and tweets are most effective. For Twitter, late in the day and later in the week are the most retweetable times. But for Facebook, weekends are the best time for sharing.

So what’s the best solution? Focus your content.

Start by publishing a blog and post it on Facebook once every other day. Re-purpose that post for Twitter and tweet throughout the day with additional information about the same topic – even repost the same blog with different lead-ins multiple times. Then, mix in other timely stories and post as often as possible. If it helps, make an editorial calendar with the number of posts per day for each social media tool.

If you’re farther a long with your social media following, try an integration solution like Hootsuite. This tool is more than a simple social media tool that sends one post to multiple sites at the same time. It allows the user to send updates to multiple places at various times and also allows for scheduled postings in advance.

What schedule works best for you?

Have you ever told someone about a funny TV commercial but couldn’t remember what product it was advertising? Some ad gurus might say it doesn’t matter whether or not you remember the brand, as long as the commercial sticks with you. Others say you really do remember — on a subconscious level — even if you think you don’t. But pretty much every marketing expert would agree that subtlety doesn’t work for B2B. Read more »

I was talking to a client the other day and in addition to the work we were discussing, they had some questions about branding if they were to acquire another company. Although this is a robust topic that can be quite complex, the main marketing equation you have to consider when you are bringing multiple companies together into one organization is Brand Equity (good) vs. Brand Confusion (bad). Read more »

B2B social media marketers know that short URLs are a necessity. You’re constantly limited with how many characters you have for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. But the power of a long URL, with tracking and a targeted destination, is often the reality.

The answer? URL shorteners. These online tools, such as Bitly or Tiny URL, will let you paste your long url into a field on their site and instantly give you a shorter URL (about 8 to 12 characters) to the same destination – hiding your tracking, code or anything else that happens to be there. Read more »

With the world buzzing about social media, it’s easy to overlook the traditional case study or testimonial as a marketing tool and to focus instead on adding followers through Facebook and Twitter. But you don’t have to choose one or the other. In fact, testimonials might be the key to growing your social fanbase — and your fans might be your best source for new testimonials.

In a MarketingSherpa survey of B2B marketers, seeking out testimonials and case studies ranked as the #2 most effective tactic for developing marketing content — second only to repurposing information that already exists (see below). That means testimonials and case studies are the top source for new content. And once you’ve got a good one, you can share it through social and other media.  Read more »

We’ve all heard that content is king. That to build trust and gain customers, every B2B company should be creating online content that is relevant and valuable. And that’s true. But as communication evolves, what form should that content take? Should we continue to create content that’s a direct extension of our marketing efforts? Or should marketing departments take a more journalistic approach that focuses on content that improves people’s work lives, rather than promoting companies and products, knowing that the “gravy” will be improved SEO, influence and sales?

First, it’s helpful to understand how these two approaches differ. Read more »

Most marketers know that having a database is important to their organization’s marketing efforts. But creating one, maintaining it and using it effectively are much easier said than done. To ensure you’re getting the most sales from your lead generation efforts, here are seven tactical things every marketer should do right now with their marketing database…followed by one piece of advice on strategy. Read more »

Last week, while working on a business letter here at MarketSense, we took a step back and asked ourselves if the old letter-writing rules still apply. Sure, a strong headline always adds value, but what about that pesky postscript? Traditionally, business letters mention the call to action three times, including once in the postscript, in hopes that the reader will notice at least one of them. But today, in the interest of brevity, is it better to mention your call to action in the body copy and be done with it?

The answer: It depends. Read more »

By now, most B2B marketers know that creating content and establishing thought leadership — through blogs, white papers, etc. — is a critical component of marketing success. The value of nurturing prospects and driving search engine traffic has been hammered home consistently over the past decade. Each step in the evolution of the web has emphasized the importance of communication with customers and prospects via a high-quality content portfolio — from corporate website content to blogs and now social media. Read more »

If you’re still wondering about the value of using mobile platforms for business-to-business marketing, check out this new story in BtoB. According to B2B marketing expert Christina “CK” Kerley, mobile platforms deliver “the holy grail of one-to-one marketing.” She says, “what more personal media do business audiences have than their mobile devices? Further, all activity on our mobile devices is viewed as a priority. For example, SMS alerts (“texts”) are read 90% of the time and typically within three minutes of delivery. Can we say the same for any other kind of marketing?” Read more »