To build lasting relationships and generate leads from your business networking efforts, you need to have a strategic and consistent approach to staying in touch with your contacts. Here are some tips on how to use social media and content marketing to enhance your follow-up and increase your visibility.
Not all social media platforms are created equal when it comes to business networking. You need to consider where your target audience is, what type of content they consume, and how they interact with others. For example, LinkedIn is a great platform for B2B networking, sharing professional insights, and joining relevant groups. Twitter is a good platform for staying updated on industry trends, engaging with influencers, and participating in chats. Facebook is a popular platform for creating communities, hosting events, and showcasing your brand personality. Instagram is a visual platform for showcasing your products, services, or behind-the-scenes stories. Choose the platforms that suit your goals, your niche, and your style.
Content marketing is a powerful way to demonstrate your expertise, provide value to your audience, and attract potential clients. You can create content in various formats, such as blog posts, podcasts, videos, ebooks, webinars, or newsletters. The key is to create content that is relevant, useful, and engaging for your target market. You can use content marketing to address their pain points, answer their questions, offer solutions, or share stories. Content marketing can also help you establish your credibility, authority, and trustworthiness in your field.
I've been creating content on LinkedIn for almost 5 years. While I agree that content marketing can help establish credibility, authority and trustworthiness, I also think that people can really get to know you through commenting. When I see a comment, I go to that person's profile...where I see that value-packed content...that's how it works.
Creating content is not enough; you also need to share and promote it to reach your audience and increase your visibility. You can use social media to distribute your content to your followers, groups, or hashtags. Use email marketing to send your content to your subscribers or contacts. You can also leverage other platforms or channels, such as guest posting, podcasting, or speaking, to expose your content to new audiences. The more you share and promote your content, the more traffic, engagement, and leads you can generate.
Promoting with empathy is my mantra. Tagging people Just because you want them to comment is a big NO in my playbook. If you think they will get value out of the post that’s the only time I tag them. I get drawn to posts that are promoted by others rather than the person who wrote it.
Social media and content marketing are not one-way communication; they are meant to spark conversations and interactions. Engage with your contacts regularly to build rapport, trust, and loyalty by liking, commenting, sharing, or tagging their posts. You can also send them direct messages, emails, or invitations to connect or join your groups or ask them for feedback, testimonials, or referrals. Try creating polls, surveys, quizzes, or challenges to encourage participation and engagement.
I've learned so much from my network with the use of polls. Not only do people vote, they comment too. Polls have been fantastic for starting conversations here on LinkedIn.
Track and analyze your metrics, such as reach, impressions, clicks, shares, comments, leads, or conversions. Tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, or email marketing software can collect and visualize your data. Use your data to evaluate your performance, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and optimize your strategy.
Social media and content marketing are dynamic and evolving fields, so experiment and learn from your experience to improve your follow-up and visibility. Test different types of content, formats, platforms, or channels to see what works best for your audience and goals. You need to learn from your successes and failures, and adapt to the changing trends and preferences of your market. Keep learning new skills, tools, or techniques to enhance your social media and content marketing efforts.
Adaptation is key. This can be difficult if we get skilled at something - say podcasting - but the audience is starting to favor videos so getting in front of the camera the guest and looking at the camera - not the guest’s fave on the screen - is a learned skill. And then video falls out of favor. And we need to move on.