by Anthony Galasso
As the social media landscape continues its exponential growth, its functionality as a business-to-business sales and marketing tool has grown accordingly. What was originally designed as an electronic means for friends to stay in touch has matured into a billion-dollar industry with a place in boardrooms across the globe. Business.com recently published a chart detailing how companies using social media are seeing beneficial results. About 1,400 businessmen were asked how their company currently judges success of social media initiatives; the top three answers were Web traffic, engagement with prospects and brand awareness. Therefore, while serving as a potential sales and marketing support tool, a social media presence can greatly improve a company’s organic search results through increased Web visitors, while contributing to greater brand building and recognition.
Hit the Links
Though business social media is clearly on the rise, a large percentage of companies have yet to “dive in.” Many company leaders recognize the need for a social media presence, yet many do not understand what—and, more importantly, how—to achieve it. There are many ways to achieve this goal.
To take the first step toward utilizing social media to enhance a corporate online presence, personnel can create individual profiles on LinkedIn. At the same time, it is recommended a corporate, or company, profile is created. It is important for management to encourage all employees to create a LinkedIn page so the corporate profile on LinkedIn provides a fair and accurate depiction of the company.
A LinkedIn profile can provide myriad networking opportunities and strengthen already-existing value-chains while offering the potential to discover new pathways to sales. Often referred to as the “global water cooler,” social media sites such as LinkedIn have industry and association groups for LinkedIn members to participate in. Participation can take on many forms, from simply viewing conversations taking place within their industry to being an active contributor .
These LinkedIn industry groups are continually created, providing a common “gathering place” for members to discuss industry issues, search for distributors or even poll industry thought-leaders for opinions. For example, the SupplySide LinkedIn group has more than 5,100 members, ranging from C-suite executives and sales representatives to media, marketers and more. With a broad level of active participants, discussions on popular LinkedIn groups provide a wide range of knowledge, experience and opinions from which individuals can always find a takeaway that can help in their professional life.
Three steps to immediately use LinkedIn:
- Create an individual profile, including a summary of work experience, specialties and education.
- Find and connect with the professional contacts with whom you are currently affiliated.
- Join industry-related groups to further enhance your network, and continue professional development through monitoring and participating in discussions.
