Twitter is a great representation of the global population. There are of course people and societies that do not have internet access, but nonetheless, through Twitter you can learn a lot about human nature, behavior, and trends.
Often times we're faced with the dark side, and vicious cyber bullying, So why should serious B2B companies participate in the Twittersphere?
In this post, I want to look at why Twitter can still be relevant for B2B marketing, and why the nature of Twitter allows them to chill out a little bit.
WHAT IS TWITTER, REALLY?
You may have thought it was only for #Beliebers, and #OneDirection fans (you wouldn't be far off) or only been exposed to Jimmy Fallon's and Justin Timberlake's funny #Hashtag bit. Twitter though, is a live text, image and video feed of new and up to the second information, that is searchable and constantly updating. Twitter recently changed it's rules to accommodate the ever changing nature of the social platform.
For B2B companies, its a great space to share content, for both marketing and product updates. Another, great feature is remarketing, allowing you to specifically target your buyer persona. On Twitter, you can be sure you're speaking directly to your target customer. For most B2B companies there is only one KPI that matters for social media - Leads!
DO TWEETS MATTER?
Due to the nature of Twitter, there are nearly 9,100 tweets per second, and a tweet lifespan of up to 18 minutes. While these statistics can be shocking, there are always tips and tricks to getting your tweet to go viral, or at least increase clicks to conversions.
By now B2B executives will be asking, 'if tweets are so short lived do they really matter?' It's like the age old question: if a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The best answer is that it always matters; and at the bare minimum it can help your SEO.
SHOULD B2B COMPANIES TREAT TWITTER SERIOUSLY?
There are of course best practices to managing your twitter feed, but I would add one caveat: chill out!
As mentioned throughout this post, Twitter is an important B2B Marketing tool. However, The fast paced nature of twitter, and short life span of a tweet, means that the average B2B company can relax a little bit in their style and overall seriousness in which they take twitter.
In addition to news and sharing important information, Twitter should be a fun place for companies to interact directly with their customers. Even if your brand image is very serious, the very fact that your buyer is on a social media platform during business hours and non business hours should indicate that a little levity is in order.
What about ROI?
ROI for social media can be difficult to measure for B2B marketing, as there are some intangible benefits, such as brand awareness, and customer service. However, there are some concrete ways to calculate ROI of social media; I like Neil Patel's infographic.
If you're doing any kind of calculation, the majority of costs are going to be measured by labor hour (we're not talking about paid social here). Now ask yourself, is it worth the extra hours of design time to create that custom twitter specific image or the multiple revisions between your writers and managers?
So go ahead and tweet away, be creative, positive, real and engage with others. After all, twitter is a social space designed to spark conversation and share information between people.
by The Penguin Team on August 31, 2016
As a leading B2B digital marketing agency, We help B2B Technology Companies, enterprise software, and hardware companies increase brand awareness, reach more qualified leads and close more customers. Penguin Strategies is a Diamond Partner of HubSpot.
