360° Social Media for Industrial Companies: Full-Circle Approach
We’ve heard it many times: social media is here to stay; it is beneficial for your business, builds and supports your online reputation, etc. Though these are all true, most people don’t know why or how. Why is social media here to stay; how is it beneficial for business; how does it build and support brand reputation?
Blogging and Social Media: 360° Approach
Last week’s article was on blogging and how it makes a difference in business. We discussed the opportunities it creates for content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). Specifically in reference to content marketing, blogs can potentially build reputations online as thought/information leaders. In reference to SEO, blogging and the use of long-tail keywords help companies rank higher in search results potentially resulting in more web traffic. The opportunities from blogging make it essential for any company’s online marketing strategy.
However, one more opportunity not yet discussed and is important to mention is consistent messaging with social media. Social media is all about sharing important and relevant content. Your blogs are the source of this content. Promoting your blogs on social media is what ties it all together, making your social media run full-circle. Think of it as if it were the Solar System; the social sites revolving around your blog. It can be difficult to share a lot of information on some social media channels but blogging changes that. For example, Twitter limits post to be no longer than 140 characters. The trick to providing all the information you want to share is to blog, then tweet or post snippets of that blog article on the other social media platforms, ensuring that consistent message.
Below are the best practices for sharing your blogs via the top social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Google+.
What to Share on Social Media From Your Blogs
Blog Titles, Quotes & Questions
The easiest way to share a blog is to post the title and a link to the article. Titles are the first thing people read; therefore it’s important to choose titles that are attention-grabbing and relevant to your audience.
In addition to titles, sharing quotes or excerpts from the blog is a great way to give followers a better idea of what the blog is about. You want to persuade them to read your blog, so providing a compelling and significant quote may be the tipping point that gets followers to click.
Finally, asking questions related to your article or that are answered by your article can be what really grabs a follower’s attention. You may even get them to engage and ask more questions or comment.
Statistics
Blogs typically have a statistic that is either included in the article or is related to it. Statistics or market research on the topic tend to be compelling and persuasive to readers because it gives them a perspective; an idea of the issue at hand. Ultimately it gets them thinking of the topic. You can easily tweet statistics or create images including the statistics to make them more eye-catching and appealing; making it more compelling for followers to share it with their followers.
Blog Images
Choose an image that connects with your overall article and message. Images are memorable and can communicate to followers what the article is about instantly. Also, as mentioned above, images are more appealing to share.
How to Share on Social Media: Examples Across Top Channels
Facebook
The layout of Facebook promotes a visual preference. Facebook Timeline makes it really easy to emphasize and/or highlight posts and share pictures.
Here are examples of blog promotions on the Thomas Web Solutions Facebook:
Twitter
Sharing on Twitter is limited; all tweets can be no longer than 140 characters. Sharing your blog titles, short quotes, or asking questions that your blog answers is key.
Here are a few examples from the Thomas Web Solutions Twitter:
Google+
Google+ works very similarly to Facebook but has its own advantages that make it a significant platform to share your blog posts on. To share your blog posts on Google+, focus more on the content. Google+ is directly linked with their search engine so your posts would be beneficial for SEO as quotes or excerpts from your blog.
Here are examples from the ThomasNet Google+ Page promoting “Industrial Marketing Trends”:
Having a fully integrated social media strategy is important as it helps build a company’s reputation online. Companies should seek to become industry thought leaders. When creating blogs, it’s important to consider how it will benefit your readers; what questions are you answering? In doing so, it makes it easy to promote your blogs via social media with the same intent in mind; capturing followers’ attention with information they want to know about.
Thomas’ Social Media Program helps industrial companies create a full-circle social media strategy to ultimately improve company presence online, build reputation, and drive traffic to their websites. For more information on Thomas Web Solutions Social Media Program, click here.
Image Credit: ESA
Already promote your blogs via social media? What are your go-to tactics that work for you?
