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As B2B companies prepare their 2015 marketing plans and allocate dollars for various programs, it is important to optimize the value of social media and how far an investment in these channels can go to communicate your value proposition and engage your customers. When evaluating the best channel for your message, it is key to remain focused on your target audience. Determining which social media platforms you should allocate time and money to requires an evaluation of your target audience, your competitors, and your industry influencers social media behaviors.  These behaviors include not only presence but also engagement with specific social media platforms.  As a result of this analysis, you may choose to leverage your efforts across multiple platforms or focus all efforts on making an impact on one platform.  Social media, however, is not to be ignored.  In 2013, it was shown to produce almost double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, or PPC.

Amongst social media platforms, LinkedIn leads the pack for B2B marketing, generating the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate – almost 3 times higher than both Twitter and Facebook.  For that reason, LinkedIn should be a top priority for social media spend.

The Zer0 to 5ive Beginner’s Guide to Marketing on LinkedIn

0. Determine Your Strategy and Objectives

If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?  It’s not enough to simply start posting to LinkedIn – you need to understand what you are trying to accomplish, who you are trying to target and how you are going to measure success.  Too often, basic marketing and business principles aren’t applied to social media campaigns.  The “lets try it out and see what happens” approach is guaranteed to disappoint.

1. Create and Maintain a Branded Company Page

At its most basic level, a company page provides a brief summary of what you do and drives traffic to your website.  But, as with most things in life, there are best practices for building a company page that maximize outcomes. Check out LinkedIn’s top 10 company pages of 2014 to see what the best of the best are up to.

2. Monitor Your Company Page with Analytics

A little over a year ago, LinkedIn added analytic capabilities to the company pages.  Much like Google Analytics for your website, LinkedIn provides you with user information – both in terms of demographics and activity.  If you aren’t looking at these metrics you are missing a major opportunity to improve your engagement with prospects and convert more leads.

3. Build Your Personal Networks

The best way to share company updates, publications, and news is through personal networks.  Think of it as a warm lead – you are known and trusted by your network and likewise your network is known and trusted by their individual networks.  You can reach a lot of people with whom you have instant credibility by sharing updates within your extended network.

4. Use LinkedIn Pulse

Pulse is a LinkedIn application that allows you to follow news and insights on topics that interest you. Originally, contributors to Pulse needed to apply and receive permissions to post but recently LinkedIn opened this function to the entire community.  When used the right way, it can be a very valuable tool to gain the attention of prospects.  Topics covered by Pulse range from inspirational and leadership advice to very specific business issues. This provides a perfect solution for companies that do not have the resources to create ongoing custom content as the posts are typically very succinct and they are distributed to an already attentive audience.

5. Use Groups to Your Advantage

Identify the groups your company could benefit from being a part of or groups your company could contribute to in a valuable way.  Participate in discussions, post news of interest within those groups, send your Pulse posts out to the groups and, if the budget allows for it, advertise to those groups. People within a specific group have added themselves as a member because they have an interest in the topic so they are a particularly receptive demographic within LinkedIn. If what you share provides them with value, you can build credibility for yourself and your company, drive people to your company page or website and increase your number of leads.

Ultimately, the name of the game is creating valuable content that helps people solve a problem they are facing.  If you don’t have a great message, it doesn’t really matter how you share it.  But, on the other hand, if you have a great message and great content and insight to share and you aren’t promoting it on LinkedIn, you’re leaving leads on the table.

Post by Cole Naldzin, Director