There isn't any question that it takes a village to run a business, especially in the Business-to-Business (B2B) world. Your inbound and social media marketing should always showcase your company. But, we're finding that decision makers in the businesses we want to do business with are looking to receive a more personalized message. B2B decision makers want to see a human face behind the company they buy from rather than just a website, whitepapers, or an e-book giving product stats.
We've talked before about the importance of building trust and credibility by proving you're an expert in your industry. This doesn't mean this proof can come only from you as the CEO or management level employee. It means you have to acknowledge you have a super team behind you that makes all the business magic happen. Most likely, they have just as much if not more industry knowledge as you.
You should never let this go to waste since it's very valuable to your marketing efforts. Much of this expertise could be placed into marketing content you post on social media or provide for download in your inbound strategy. It also works well directly on social media, particularly through one notable place that many B2B businesses prefer.
Showcasing Your Employee Expertise in Text or Video Blogs
You likely have any number of employees in your company who could write guest blog posts and take the pressure off you. Meet with your employees and decide who could take over and write a blog post once a week. Let them showcase their particular industry and / or product expertise.
Not only does this help make your company more human, you prove your entire team has credibility rather than hiring people to merely do manual labor.
Keep in mind video blogs (or vlogs) are often better than written posts because they allow your employees to talk directly into the camera and personalize what they are saying. If they aren't great in front of a camera, let them write. Or, if they aren't great writers, then just consult with them on industry information and give them credit in your text or video blog.
Allowing Employees to Post on Your Social Media Account
Don't be afraid to hand over the keys to the kingdom to your employees so they can post on your company's social media accounts. This won't work like interns where you could get in trouble if they post something accidentally wrong. Your B2B employees are valuable assets who respect your company and have much to share for your prospective buyers. Think about implementing an inbound and social media marketing policy that provides some guidance and sets some standards and limits.
Let these employees post on select days so they can post content or industry trivia your followers have interest in. Also, allow these employees to answer any questions buyers ask on a live feed or in a private message.
Doing this allows a future buyer to get to know each of your team members so it becomes almost like a long-term family relationship.
Use of Your Employees on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a popular social media destination for B2B marketing because it incorporates both industry information and personalization all in one place. Have your employees optimize their personal profiles, connect to the Company Page and become active in LinkedIn Groups for purposes of building trust and credibility, thought leadership and prospecting.
While your Company Page contains a complete picture of what you're all about, promoting the individual pages of your employees helps you show the breadth of talent you've hired. Because each profile highlights their skills, education, and roles in your company, you provide an elaborate view of your B2B company so it leaves few buyer questions unanswered about your credibility. Remember, people do business with people not businesses. Even people who land on your Company Page are going to click to learn more about your employees.
Contact us here at The Friedman Group, LLC so we can help you find ways to showcase the expertise of your B2B employees as well as countless other marketing techniques.
