MarketingProfs’ Virtual Conference: Speak In A Bold, Active Voice On Social Media

Published: June 30, 2014

At the recent MarketingProfs Virtual Conference, a wide range of social media experts came together to offer their insights on effectively managing the social aspects of content marketing campaigns — including the ideal lengths of posts — and strategies for personalizing social outreach.

Successful social media posts consist of valuable content for the marketer’s target audience. Content that is found valuable among a social community are often the pieces of content that circulate the furthest. The content has to pass the “re-share” test in order to be considered valuable, according to Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist at graphic design platform Canva.

“One concept is to follow other thought leaders that you respect,” said Kawasaki. “You should watch what they are posting and then re-post the content you find valuable. In a sense, they have already filtered the content for you and it proves its worth by the amount of times it is re-shared.”

If done correctly, a brief post — with a bold and active voice — has the greatest potential for success, Kawasaki explained.

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The perfect social post, according to Kawasaki, includes:

  • A 50-character headline;
  • A three-sentence body; and
  • An active voice

 

“If you cannot summarize your message in fifty characters, there is a good chance that you do not have a great grasp on what you are trying to communicate with your audience,” Kawasaki added. “The more brief, the better; this is so your audience can add their own thoughts when they re-share your posts.”

Content Personalizes Messages, Experiences

While the B2B marketplace has gradually turned digital, marketers are struggling to personalize the B2B buying experience. In one session, Mark Schaefer, Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, explained social media’s role in the content marketing strategy, and shared several tips to help marketers effectively engage prospects via social.

“Today’s businesses have to go to market the same way companies have been doing it for generations, even though there is new technology out there,” said Mark Schaefer, Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. “The way people bought from one another for centuries was intimate and connected, so marketers today have to offer that same feeling through these new channels.”

Social media is the best tool to leverage the buyer’s desire to interact with company prior to engaging with sales. While many of the newer technologies in the B2B landscape that remove the physical communication between buyer and seller, social media can bridge the gap and offers a similar experience that buyers look for when in the buying process.

The three steps to having a clear social media mindset include:

  1. 1.Meaningful content;
  2. 2.Targeted connections; and
  3. 3.Authentic helpfulness

 

In another session, attendees learned about why buyers were going are going through a state of “content shock” in today’s digital B2B environment. It has gotten to the point where marketers understand that their content is what will ultimately affect the overall effectiveness of social media initiatives, according to David Thomas, Senior Director of Content and Engagement at Salesforce.

Thomas added: “In the past five years when marketers were trying to make social media into a reality and make it valuable, and one of the things we lacked was anything useful to say towards our customers. We have now found what we need to say, we’ve learned the basics and now we have the content that effectively utilizes social media.”

 

Click here to view an on-demand version of the virtual conference.

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