Tag: B2B content

Content marketing, Social media

How to make social media work for B2B businesses

Social media is a big part of many businesses marketing strategy, and it can be really effective if used well. But if it isn’t, it can be a huge drain on time and resources with minimal return.

Screen shot of LinkedIn Live session. Ayo Abbas, Stacey Meadwell and Emma Drake are on screen. Banner across the stop says It's a B2B comms thing - How to make social media work in '22

In the latest It’s a B2B comms thing LinkedIn Live with fellow B2B comms professionals Ayo Abbas and Emma Drake, we discussed using social media for B2B business, what’s hot, what’s not and how to use it effectively.

Here are some edited highlights, and you’ll find a link to the full discussion, which includes audience questions at the bottom of the post.

Why are you and your business on social media?

Emma: I see lots of businesses chasing social media accounts with no real idea of what they’ll share or are trying to achieve. I use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

I use LinkedIn for finding interesting people and engaging with them, connecting after or before meetings and events, and keeping in touch – it is really good for that.

Twitter I use pretty much solely for [promoting] podcast content, and I’m a bit more cheeky on there. I think we all feel we have to be a bit better behaved on LinkedIn for some reason.

But it’s completely different people engaging on there, and it’s good for generating traffic to my podcast.

I do have a Facebook page for the podcast, and their analytics are really good for directly targeting people.

Me: I only use LinkedIn for business. I have a work Twitter account as a hangover of my days as a journalist, but I don’t really use it.

I’ve fallen out of love with Twitter over the last few years. And if I’m going to be on there, I need to invest a lot of time, and I’ve just not got the time or energy.

Continue reading “How to make social media work for B2B businesses” →
Content marketing

Creating meaningful B2B content around ‘awareness’ days

All through the year, there are awareness days/months – Fairtrade Fortnight, Stress Awareness Month etc which offer an opportunity to publish related content.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

But it’s important to make sure that what you publish is meaningful and genuine. Your audience will see through content that is a tick box exercise or jumping on the bandwagon.

And, you risk opening your business up to extra scrutiny if you don’t put out content that is authentic and has integrity.

Take International Women’s Day which is coming up on 8 March.

The theme is Choose to Challenge, which provides a whole wealth of opportunity for content, but only if you have robust stories to tell.

Tell genuine stories

Those stories can be about what you are doing to improve gender equality in your business, what progress you’ve made, what difference you are trying to make and why.

It doesn’t matter if you are in the early stages of your strategy if you are taking genuine steps towards meeting your goals.

Continue reading “Creating meaningful B2B content around ‘awareness’ days” →
B2B media, Content marketing, SEO, Writing tips

Simple ways to improve dwell time on your B2B website

Web search tools such as Google, like your B2B website more if people spend time on it rather than having a quick look. It’s a sign that your website is useful and interesting and content can play an important role in this.

Photo by Jilbert Ebrahimi on Unsplash

First of all Google et al check your site to see if there is new content being published regularly, so having a regular flow of news, blogs posts, insight – whatever form your content takes – is a key part of optimising your site for search (SEO).

Your B2B website is also monitored for the time visitors spend on it which is often referred to as ‘dwell time’ or just ‘dwell’.

Having good quality, relevant content to read is, of course, important but also having some longer pieces helps.

It is good practice to include an image or photo with all content – it not only helps tell the story but can help grab readers attention if they are scrolling.

Longer pieces can additionally be broken up with subheads, infographics, pull quotes etc all of which can also help grab attention and keep readers engaged.

(There’s a practical reason too, big blocks of text are harder to read on screen.)

Interaction – engagement – with your B2B content can also increase dwell time so you could allow people to comment on your posts.

Continue reading “Simple ways to improve dwell time on your B2B website” →
Copywriting

Why you should park the ego when writing B2B content

kaitlyn-baker-422999-unsplash
Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

B2B content writing is an exercise in parking the ego.

There’s a lot of talk about content that adds value but in order to add value, you need to focus on your target audience and what is valuable and interesting to them.

It’s not about putting yourself and business first but putting your audience – and the point of interest – first.

Continue reading “Why you should park the ego when writing B2B content” →