When you were young, it was easier to make friends.
Many people around you were the same age, have similar interests and experiences as you do.
But as you grow older and become mature, you settle into your identity.
Relationships change.
Maybe your friends moved away, or you drifted apart.
You started interacting with the same group of people. It becomes harder to hang out with new people.
Some studies have shown that we tend to have fewer friends as we grow old.
However, that doesn’t mean we don’t want new friends. It doesn’t mean we don’t like friends.
It’s easier to make new friends today than decades ago.
Through the power of social media, you can develop a relationship with anyone today, starting right now.
Social media has allowed brands to become humans. That means people can see your brand as a friend. They can see your brand as a loyal supporter.
They can see your brand as someone who gives them hope. They can see your brand as someone who loves them and cares about them.
That is what you can do with social media.
Social media lets a brand like Xbox chats with prospects and customers.
You may argue that Xbox is a B2C company. How can a B2B company become friends with social media users?
John Deere uses Twitter to chat and connect with its customers.
You see a lot of B2C companies using social media and very few B2B companies doing the same. Most B2Bs struggle with social media. Some ignore it.
Most B2B companies still rely on traditional tactics like cold calling and attending networking events.
If you’re running a B2B company and not using social media, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to turn prospects and customers into friends and advocates.
I’m not saying traditional tactics are no longer effective for B2B, but you can use social media to grow your revenue even faster.
How?
After reading this article and applying the tips you’ll learn, your company will become a social king.
Let’s begin.
Get on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is not the most popular social media platform out there, but it is where most industry professionals meet. It is where most B2B activities happen.
LinkedIn may not have the numbers of Facebook and Instagram, but 500 million employees, entrepreneurs, and CEOs are active on the site.
If you want to develop relationships with professionals, like-minded individuals, and thought-leaders in your industry, LinkedIn is the best place to do that.
Create a complete profile for yourself on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has a lot of authority on Google. LinkedIn profiles and company pages perform well on Google.
When someone types your name into Google, your LinkedIn profile is likely to show up in search results.
How to get warm leads on LinkedIn
Most people on LinkedIn are there for businesses.
No play. No sharing of cat photos. They are not there to connect with friends and family. Just business and nothing there.
That is why LinkedIn is the number one place to find warm leads.
What are warm leads?
Warm leads are people who have shown interest in your product or service. They can also be people who want to learn more about you and your company.
I should note that there are other types of leads: Cold leads and hot leads.
A cold lead is someone who hasn’t shown any interest in your product or service.
Hot leads are people who are highly interested in buying your product or service. Hot leads won’t waste your time because they are ready to buy.
Most hot leads started as warm leads.
Let’s talk about warm leads because there are lots of them on LinkedIn waiting for you.
You’ll find warm leads in the often-overlooked section, “Who’s viewed your profile.”
If someone viewed your profile, it’s a sign that you’ve caught their attention on LinkedIn. They are interested in learning more about you and what you do.
They want to know your company and the products or services you render.
It doesn’t mean they are ready to buy from you at that moment. But it’s a positive step towards becoming a client.
Maybe you made a comment that caught their attention. Or you posted an update that taught them something new.
Or, you shared an interesting article or video.
The great thing about LinkedIn is that the more active you are on the platform, the more visitors your LinkedIn profile will receive.
When someone views your profile, it’s an opportunity to start a conversation with them.
If they have you on top of their mind, they’ll want to connect with you.
These people are warm leads.
You can turn these visitors into hot leads if you continue to develop relationships with them.
Don’t send blank connection requests on LinkedIn
If you’re already on LinkedIn, I’m sure you’ve seen the below sentence many times:
“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”
These words are the most boring words on LinkedIn.
When you send the above sentence to someone you want to connect with, it tells them how uninterested you are in joining their network.
I call this and other boring messages blank connection requests. They have no emotion in them.
If you want to join the network of a power user on LinkedIn, you’ll have to do more.
Don’t send them messages they see every day in their connection requests.
Personalize your message. Be polite. Be praiseful. Be professional.
Tell them why you want to connect with them. Write about how you found them.
If you have a mutual connection with them on LinkedIn, tell them about it.
At least, 90% of my connection requests get accepted on LinkedIn. It’s because I personalize my messages.
Personalizing your message is a great way to make a good first impression.
Don’t send an invitation to anyone. Prioritize.
If your B2B business only serves people in Europe, send requests to potential clients who live or have business connections in Europe.
Create a company page on LinkedIn to boost your SEO
An active company page on LinkedIn helps SEO.
Search engines trust LinkedIn.
Therefore, create your company page on LinkedIn.
Make sure it has your company’s logo and a background image that is consistent with your website’s imagery.
For example, Salesforce has a company page on LinkedIn.
Our company, GrowthFunnel has a company page on LinkedIn.
Maintain your company page. Be active. Get followers for your page.
The more you update the page and the more followers it has, the more visibility your business will have on LinkedIn.
And the more views your company page gets, the more leads you’ll get from LinkedIn.
Also, don’t forget that along with this, you should also maintain an active professional profile for yourself on LinkedIn.
Get all your employees listed on your LinkedIn page and ensure that they are active on the platform.
When they post content on LinkedIn, people will see that they work for your company.
Track what your employees on posting on the platform.
Check their profile now and then to ensure that they are good representatives of your company on the platform.
Publish articles on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has a publishing feature that lets anyone post articles.
Publishing articles on a regular basis will increase the reach of your business on the platform.
Make sure your articles have attention-grabbing headlines.
LinkedIn users are busy people. For your article to get their attention, the headline must make them curious.
The body of your article should fulfill the promise you made in the headline because LinkedIn users hate clickbait.
If your headline only got their attention and the content failed to live up to expectation, they may never click your articles again. That means you’ve lost their trust.
Also, lower the reading level of your content. Use simple, everyday words.
Because most LinkedIn users are educated and professional people doesn’t mean they want to read complex words.
A score between 90 – 100 means 11-year-olds can understand it.
A score between 60 – 70 means 13-to-15-year-olds can understand it.
A score between 0-30 means only people who graduated from a university can read your article.
In a study of 3,000 posts on LinkedIn, they found that articles with the Flesch-Kincaid scores between 80 – 89 drew most views on LinkedIn.
Microsoft Word lets you check the Flesch-Kincaid score of your article.
Click “File,” then “Options.”
Then click “Proofing.”
Inside “Proofing,” make sure “Show readability statistics” is checked.
After doing this. Click on the number of words you’ve written that shows at the bottom-left side of Microsoft Word.
I’ve not completed this article, so I clicked the words I’ve written. The Flesch Kincaid score of this article is 66.3. That is not bad when you consider the fact that the version right now is a rough draft.
I’ll replace some complex words with simple ones when I finish writing the draft. So, getting to 85 – 90 shouldn’t be hard.
Publish interesting articles people want to read. When you do that, many LinkedIn users will visit your profile. That will make them warm leads which you can message later.
Use Twitter to engage one-on-one with prospects
Twitter is no doubt the best social media platform to start a conversation with anyone.
If a potential client is active on Twitter, it’ll be easy to connect with them.
Have someone in mind who you think is a perfect partner or client?
Check them on Twitter.
If they are active, go to their profiles and check the “Tweets & replies” section. Under this tab, you’ll find active discussions they are part of.
Find their recent tweets and replies and share your views and knowledge. Share something meaningful.
Ask them questions to keep the conversation going. Thank them when they respond.
Discussions like this leads to trust and sales.
Find opportunities to add emotions like awe, curiosity and shock to your Tweets.
Join relevant discussions on Twitter. The more discussions you join that relate to your industry, product or service, the more people will become interested in your brand.
Twitter is good for connecting with people without looking like a marketer or salesperson.
Find prospects on Twitter
People share their opinions and ask questions on Twitter. What makes Twitter different is that users can also comment on trending topics.
If a topic is trending and it somehow relates to your brand, product or service, you should respond to Tweets people make in that hashtag.
It could also be a topic that is connected to the location of your business.
For example, imagine someone tweeted “Anyone know a good photographer in Maryland?” and you happened to know a photographer in in Maryland, you should respond to this tweet.
Well, you shouldn’t respond to every tweet, with the hope that the conversation leads to sales. No, that’s a wrong way to see it.
Instead, your goal should be to help people with your knowledge and connection.
Another way to approach this is to follow topics that are related to your industry and respond to anyone who tweeted with the hashtag or topic in their tweets.
Let’s assume that you sell Instagram marketing services, you can use Twitter advanced search to find users who recently used “Instagram” in their Tweets.
For example, I search for recent Tweets that mentioned “Instagram,” the user wrote in “English” and lives in California. That is like saying my company serves businesses in California.
Here’s a post that mentioned Instagram within the past 24 hours.
I can respond to this tweet. Maybe share some travel blogs I like. Maybe pick my favorite from the list.
Use Facebook Ads to target prospects
According to Lisa Dougherty, Marketing Leader at Content Marketing Institute:
“The Facebook algorithm changes like the wind, but the forces that move readers to take action remain constant.”
Despite the constant changes Facebook is making to its algorithm, the desires, needs, and interests of its users don’t change.
Your prospects are on Facebook.
If you can create ads that speak to their desires, needs, and interests, you’ll get them to take whatever action you want.
Advertising on Facebook isn’t about reaching the most people. It’s about reaching the right people who need your product or service.
Make sure you know your prospects well before you start creating Facebook ads.
What’s their education and income level? What’s their age range? What are their interests and desires? What is their marital status? Do they have kids or not?
Create detailed buyer personas to help you understand your prospects.
Write ad copies that target these people. Write ad copies that will make them believe that you know them.
I like Facebook ads because of the wide targeting options it offers.
Facebook lets you target people based on their income level, marital status, location, interests and many more.
For example, let’s say you want to target individuals with the income level of $75,000 per year, live in California, owned or founded businesses, and are between the ages of 30 – 60.
Facebook shows that you have the potential to reach 2.1 million people.
You can narrow your target prospects than the above example.
Conclusion
LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all lets you target B2B clients in different ways.
LinkedIn is the best place to start because it’s for professionals. Expand to Twitter and Facebook to reach more prospects.
Social media is here to stay. You should ensure that your business is taking full advantage of it.
You need a tool like GrowthFunnel to acquire more clients on social media. The tool helps you turn your site visitors into social media followers on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.
If someone has visited your website, you should continue to develop the relationship with them on social media.
GrowthFunnel is that tool you need to turn your business around and grow even faster.
It’s free to start using GrowthFunnel. Sign up today.
