Straight Into the Content Creation Game
This week began with a lesson in communication as well as an analysis of social media strategies, efforts and trends. The brands social media presence had been on a steady decline for the past few months so I was assigned to rectify the problem, hindering the potential for new and existing clients to connect to the business on a further level.
Technically, I was sent to scout new talent for the Instagram feed , blog posts and website content. A task that I was excited to try, but definitely a difficult and time consuming one. Firstly, I formulated a template message that I could send to potential ambassadors and collaborators. Deciding on the right tone, phrasing and approach to take to ensure the correct message was delivered, was definitely something new to me. I already knew how to deliver the best customer service skills to clients, but this was a completely different form of communication that I was not accustomed to.
Viva La Blonde – Social Media Content Template
Then came the process of researching and discovering fresh faces for their content creation and electronic marketing spread. This started off very slow as I found it difficult deciding on which platforms and formats to use to begin my search.
- How would I locate these people?
- What form of communication is best suited?
- Who would best represent the brand?
- Who has the look that the brand wants?
- How to determine their residence?
My main communication channel was most successful through Instagram. It was easier to source talent through other Perth businesses e.g. make-up artists, retailers and existing clients. Once I sent my first few messages, I began to get a feel for the expectations and further understand what we were looking for so the contact began to flow.
Later that week, the responses began to come in and I had booked our first shoot for the month. In order to properly showcase the Evo Product Range, our sourced model had a take home colour conditioner applied in studio, to show clients how the product works and what the physical end result for the client would look like. The shoot was lead by myself with direction from my supervisor and the colourist.
This was by far my favourite week, learning more about content creation and how to successfully communicate with a different element of B2B that I hadn’t yet experienced in any workplace. This would definitely be an element of PR that I would like to pursue in further detail as I believe this is where my strengths lie.
Back to Basics in B2B Management
Interning at Dark Horse, I’ve had the opportunity to go back to basics and shadow how the agency manages the online presence for several of their B2B clients. Like many B2B businesses, I too didn’t really grasp how beneficial it can be for the business to establish a strong social media platform. B2B businesses have a common mindset ‘social media is irrelevant‘, where’s in reality it has the ability to accelerate their business.
Here are four reasons I’ve learnt over my internship experience, why it’s important for a B2B company to get serious on social media:
1) Management of Negative & Positive Online Conversations
In our digital age when a customer has something to express, social media is going to be the first place where they will talk. One online negative comment about the service or product of a B2B can be detrimental to the company’s reputation. Being present on social media and tracking conversations of the business online can minimise the threat of a crisis blowing up. Social profiles will provide B2B businesses the channel to address both concerning and positive reviews of the business, monitoring this feedback and effectively using this to improve the service and product.
2) Establishing a Reputation of Trust
As consumers, we have the common perception we are just being told with what we want to hear through a company’s website or AdWords campaign. For this reason, customers often now head to social media platforms first to really evaluate a real sense of trustworthiness of a business. Social media opens a window of opportunity for a B2B company to build credibility. Positive client reviews and interactions on a business Facebook page can be advantageous to establish a B2B reputation of trust.
3) Engagement Channel with Business Partners
Although as a B2B company they’re selling to other businesses, it’s important to remember that decision makers of these businesses are frequent users of social media. Research conducted by Facebook found that business decision makers spend 74% more time on the platform than other users (Facebook Business 2017). These social profiles provide a great platform for a B2B company to collaborate with both current and potential business partners in a peer-to-peer communication manner versus strictly corporate talk.
4) SEO Optimisation
Social media can be beneficial to a B2B Search Engine Optimisation, as Google algorithms incorporate an element of social signals into their search results. Links published on the business social media platforms can direct more traffic to the business website and thus increase the B2B SEO ranking. In addition to this social media profiles in themselves are also ranked in search engine results. Establishing the B2B business on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn will optimise their search engine visibility and increase company exposure to potential clients and peers, appearing first in search results.
I hope you’ve all learnt a little more on B2B social media management. You never know your next work opportunity could be working with a B2B business client, so remember to keep these 4 insights in mind.