Getting started on social media can seem overwhelming and intimidating, so here are 5 tips for launching your B2B food and beverage brand on social media. By having clear goals and proper funding, you can build a strong social media presence. It may not seem like social media has a strategy other than posting the prettiest photo, but, in fact, there are some very clear-cut ways to design your social brand.
Be focused in your approach
Your social media goals should help you meet your business goals, so decide what social media objectives will best help you achieve these. Your social media sites should be building a “funnel” that convinces people to buy from you. According to the inventor of this idea, Elias St. Elmo Lewis, a funnel needs to create awareness, interest and desire, and ultimately lead people to purchase from you. As you establish social media goals such as increasing brand awareness, growing credibility and educating audiences, be aware of how they will help create a funnel for your audience.
Choose the right platform
Not all sites are created equal for your purposes. There seem to be new social media apps popping up left and right these days, but rather than trying to manage them all, pick a few that best suit your needs. If you are going to choose only one site, LinkedIn is the perfect foundational site for your B2B brand. An overwhelming 96% of B2B brands use LinkedIn, while Twitter and Facebook are both used by 82% of B2B brands. When it comes to paid content, LinkedIn again ranks the highest with 80% of brands; Facebook is used by 67%, and Twitter trails with a distant 27%. If your brand has multiple focuses, it might be beneficial to create multiple channels to help direct customers.
Be consistent
Consistency won’t just help you build a reliable audience, it also shows potential customers you are a serious brand. Brands that post rarely or inconsistently may appear disorganized and uncommitted to their services. Create a publishing schedule that outlines what platforms you will use, how often you will post, which days you will post and which times you will post (yes, there are optimal times to post on social media!). Having multiple posts on multiple platforms can be overwhelming, which is why an organized schedule is so important.
Do the numbers—the data doesn’t lie
You can’t improve if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, so lean into analytics. 81% of B2B organizations measure content performance, a sure sign you should be as well. Some important metrics to focus on are: engagement, clicks, follower growth, click thru rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). Through years of experience, ColinKurtis has created some standard benchmarks for LinkedIn ads for B2B food and beverage brands. For LinkedIn ads, a good CTR is 0.25%-0.4%, a good video view rate is 15% and a good CPC is $7-$13. If you are unsure what you should be looking for, remember the goals you set for your brand.
Get inspiration from other businesses
You don’t have to fumble around in the dark. Find a few B2B brands whose social media engages you and use them as a guide. Learning from businesses with strong social media presence is a great way to improve your own socials. By studying other B2B brands, you can see how they build their brand and engage their followers in unique ways. For a B2B food and beverage brand, social media is a great place to highlight food ingredients or food manufacturers. Remember that different brands can pull off different brand images and it is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. ColinKurtis has worked with a wide variety of clients over the years, so take a look at our website as a starting point for your inspiration.
While social media should be customized to each business, these 5 tips are a great starting point when getting your company’s social media off the ground and running. Need help with your social media? ColinKurtis Advertising can help—contact Mitch Robinson at Mitch@colinkurtis.com or call 815-965-6657 EXT. 1 to learn more about our approach.
Blog post from:
Matt Hensler
Vice President, Digital Integration
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