Kristine’s Cartoons: Who are Your Social Media Ninjas?

Social Media is more sophisticated than most people think and way less complicated than some firms make it.

At Red Branch Media, our social media efforts are three-pronged. It is our firm belief that these three concepts combined make ours one of the strongest social media packages available for B2B (or B2C for that matter). Here’s how we break it down:

Strategy: If you don’t have a plan you are doomed to fail. We believe that and live it every day in our social media practices. So we research best social media practices (particularly for B2B social media), we constantly update our tools and take new demos for products that automate (yes, we automate some updates), we scan what competitors are doing and we work with internal departments (design, content, email and SEO) to determine what opportunities we need to take advantage of. From newsjacking to baseline updates on a specific day, from knowing when to participate in a chat or stay out of a specific trolling session around a client, strategy is a key part of our operation. Great social media, is PLANNED.

Engagement: Social media isn’t just a bullhorn. You have to be able to communicate with people and engage with them. For us, we work hard engaging in chats, providing useful content, statistics and updates on events that are happening. Our engagement team works to answer client questions, provide feedback when someone mentions a piece of our content or content we’re interested in and to handle common social courtesy (like thanking for retweets, following other followers, etc.) Engagement is more than just saying HI, it’s really about making sure you’re providing value for your followers.

Reporting: Social media is a whole lotta fun. But it’s not much use for a B2B company unless you can tie your efforts to marketing as a whole and in turn, leads…then sales. If you’re still relying on your stock reports from your automation vendor, it might be time to dig a little deeper. We frequently ask questions that push back on standard ideas:

• Are more likes really better?
• Do retweets do anything for sales?
• How do we connect a viral social update with an uptick in traffic?

Sometimes, the answers surprise us but if we don’t invest in proper reporting then we’ll find we aren’t hitting key marketing goals. When that happens, social media marketing can fall into the elusive “branding hole”, which is less than ideal when your agency focuses on these things all the time!

Social media is a great tool for B2C and B2B, but if you don’t have all three of the capabilities listed above (as well as a handy design team and content team to back you up) it’s just another noise maker.

Who are your social media ninjas?

Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is CEO of Red Branch and general Bad@$$

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Maren started Red Branch Media and, before she hired all the smiling faces you see below, she ran it on her own. In marketing for over 15 years, she has deep experience in strategic campaigns and a long-term, results-based operational approach.