The Status Update: I’m a B2B. Which social network should I be on?
So many social networks, so little time… but if you’re a business-to-business, which platform should you concentrate your efforts on? Listen to Mark Saxby interviewing Martin Broadhurst on the subject in The Status Update.
Rugby tackling the Duke of Edinburgh
It’s not often you come within a hair’s breadth of committing treason. That’s what happened to me one, almost fateful day, in 1999.
It was the 800th birthday of the city of Hull and as a Yorkshire Television reporter, I’d been sent to report on the visit of the Queen to mark the occasion. My role was a pretty minor one – I had to interview the people who Her Majesty spoke to on her walkabout on the city’s streets.
The Duke had a lucky escape that day
I was behind the cordon when the Queen approached and she stopped to talk to a lady on the opposite side of her route. So, I waited for the Queen to pass and prepared to make my move. When she was a safe distance away I ducked under the barrier and darted towards my target. But as I charged across no man’s land, a blur of something caught in my peripheral vision. I skidded to a halt, narrowly missing accidentally rugby tackling the Duke of Edinburgh. And saving my journalism career at the same time.
I didn’t have much of a strategy that day and it wasn’t a concept I thought about much in reporting assignments. As a social media marketer, though, it plays a big part. One of the first things I talk about in every training session is strategy. Why are you on social media? Where are your customers? What do you want to get out of social media? So many businesses jump into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, without any thought of how they are going to make the networks work for them. Why waste months floundering about with social media when a well-thought out strategy could have made it effective straight away?
I’ve been doing a lot of LinkedIn training in businesses recently and one of my first questions is: What do you want to get out of it? What is your LinkedIn strategy? LinkedIn reminds users they won’t be as effective without a 100% completed profile. What rubbish. LinkedIn, for instance, say you ought to have an application on your profile but if their applications don’t fit your strategy then don’t install them. Especially the Amazon reading list when your last book was a Harry Potter.
The same goes for filling in your past jobs. Only put in the ones relevant to your strategy. Don’t copy the example of the general manager at a Porsche garage who put ‘burger flipper at McDonalds” as his previous job 24 years earlier because he ‘needed to list another job to get my rating up so there you go’. Everything you do on LinkedIn should be tied to your strategy, whether it’s your status updates, the groups you get involved in or the connections you make.
So when you think social media, think strategy first. Don’t rugby tackle your way into it. You never know when you might suddenly commit treason by mistake.
The Status Update podcast: What’s the best social network for B2Cs?
Confused by all the social networks out there? Don’t know which one to best invest your time in? Listen to Martin trying to convince Mark that Facebook should be the natural choice for the business-to-consumer (B2C) industry.
Status Turns One!
Which will be the King Beer?
Time flies when you are having fun and it seems like barely five minutes have passed since we started Status Social Media Marketing at the start of 2011. We have had an incredibly successful first year and to mark the passing of it we are heading to the pub to enjoy a quiet drink. With some games, of course. Being the socialites that we are, you are invited to join the fun.
The Plan
Where: Exeter Arms, Derby
When: 7:30pm, 27th January 2011
What: Join us us for a night of judgement (of beers, not you) as we sip, taste, guzzle down and consider the subtle nuances of some of the best real ale in the region. The chain of events will be (as you munch on the snacks we’re providing):
- Buy your four halves of beer.
- Score each beer out of ten on aroma, colour, flavour and overall score.
- Fill in the comment box for each beer.
- Crown the overall winning beer – Status Birthday Beer of the Year 2012.
- Plus! The writer of the best beer comment will win a copy of the Good Beer Guide 2012!
The Status Update podcast: What’s the point of Google+?
Google+? Do I really have to? With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more taking over our lives, do we really have to invest time in another social network. If we ignore Google+, will it go away? Listen to sceptical Mark quizzing Martin over whether we should care less about Google+.
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