You’re a tech company.
People expect you to be at the forefront of all things tech.
This undoubtedly includes social media. But just because you know tech doesn’t necessarily mean you know social.
You’ve spent the past few months (maybe even years) with your nose buried in the nitty-gritty of your tech product and business, and now you’ve emerged blinking in the light, wondering how the heck you’re going to get people to pay attention to your company.
You know the key is social media, but how do you “do” social media & content marketing? And what exactly can it do for you?
(Image Source: howtostartablogonline.net)
You need to:
- Know your platforms
- Get involved with the conversation
- Mix up your media
- Watch your numbers
So you can:
- Use it to establish yourself as a thought leader
- Use it to generate leads
Know Your Platforms
There are marketers out there who will cross-post the exact same thing to all of their social media channels.
We get the logic, we’re all busy.
But the fact of the matter is, you have to tailor your message to the platform if you’re going to get anywhere near the levels of engagement you’d like to.
Twitter is great for short, ideally witty and shareable, statements or questions.
Facebook is good for longer text-based updates and commentary.
LinkedIn should be reserved for more professional posts about your company and product.
Instagram is, of course, all about the images. Fun captions with a liberal sprinkling of topical hashtags are the cherry on the sundae, but if you don’t have something pretty to share, it might be best to leave it out.
However, it pays to think out of the box, so don’t immediately discount a platform out of hand.
Shazam is a mobile app that recognises songs. You might not immediately think of photos when you think Shazam, but they’ve managed to rack up more than 140,000 followers on Instagram by sharing images of musicians and behind-the-scenes photos from their offices.
Do bear in mind though that not all platforms are going to work for your tech company, and that’s fine! No one is expecting you to be present and accounted for on every major social media channel. Pick the ones that work for you and do them well.
Get Involved with the Social Conversation
What’s that? A massive change in regulations for the tech industry has just been announced and everyone is talking about it?
We bet you’ve got some thoughts on that.
Share them!
Almost every social media platform has some version of a list of “trending” topics. If there’s something relevant to your product, get involved and make yourself heard. Hashtags are a great way to join the conversation and reach people who may not have heard of you yet.
As an example, here’s what’s trending on Twitter on the day we wrote this post.
You should also think about your ideal customers and check out their social feeds. What are they talking about? What do they care about? Whatever it is, you need to start connecting with them through their interests. This is an awesome resource so don’t waste it.
[inline-form]6 Inbound Marketing Metrics That Will Help You Track Your Tech Growth[inline-form]
Mix Up Your Media
A wall of text can be pretty intimidating and, let’s face it, boring.
Visual marketing is huge.
Live-streams, videos, images, infographics, gifs and even emojis, which were once the reserve of teenage IM chats, are all used in social media marketing to great success.
Intuit, an American company who provide business software and more, have a fun and engaging Twitter feed and still manage to stay professional.
Check out this fun gif they posted of a pumpkin pie which reveals their company logo.
Again, just like with choosing your platforms, we’re not saying you have to use every one of these. But if you’re going to keep people engaged and keep your social streams visually appealing, you should try and mix it up once in a while.
Get creative and have some fun with it, your fans and followers will thank you for it.
Watch Your Numbers
There’s something inherently thrilling about watching your numbers climb.
And there’s also something pretty devastating about seeing them drop.
There are several metrics that you need to pay attention to if you’re going to properly measure the effectiveness of your social media strategy.
And there should be a strategy, don’t just go in and start blindly posting cute gifs of puppies because people love them. Yes, you’ll probably get plenty of followers (and yes, we might be one of those followers), but it’s not doing anything for your business if you’re not selling puppies.
You need to be engaging but still targeted. You want to be attracting the right kind of people that actually have the potential to be your customers.
You also can’t get overly focused on vanity metrics like follower numbers and “likes.” What really matters is the number of people who are clicking through to your content and your website.
A platform like HubSpot can really let you dive down into the metrics and help you figure out exactly what’s working for you and what isn’t. The below graph is just a snippet of the insight that HubSpot can provide.
Becoming a Thought Leader
It’s not easy to become the go-to destination for any kind of product or service but social media can help you get there.
Inbound marketing is all about attracting people in an organic way rather than shoving whatever it is you’re selling in their faces. You want people to come to you because they find what you’re saying interesting and valuable. Eventually, they’ll buy your product because they trust your opinion and know that you have their best interests at heart.
What you can do on your social feeds is start sharing all sorts of things that are relevant to your industry. This should be both content that you’ve created yourself and other relevant, high quality sources.
You should also get in contact with influencers and get involved with whatever they’re saying. Twitter’s ‘quote’ function is ideal for this.
We’re big believers in practicing what we preach. Check out this example from our own Twitter feed:
We loved the diagram that Jonathan shared and noticed an opportunity to add value to what he was talking about. You can do exactly the same thing with sharing your own content.
Look for people expressing a need for something, either directly or indirectly, and try to meet that need.
Generate Leads
Once people know that you’re not posting any old rubbish, you can start posting links to your landing pages and begin generating leads by capturing contact information in exchange for some of your more valuable content.
It’ll take some time to get to this point, but it’s going to be worth it. Even if you can just get people to click links for non-gated blog posts, you’ve managed to get them to your website and have dozens more opportunities to turn them into customers.
Just make sure you’ve got plenty of attractive, high-converting CTAs on your site so you can snag them while they’re there!
Conclusion
Here’s the truth: you have to have a social media presence.
This is practically non-negotiable in this day and age. It’s up to you to provide targeted, relevant and valuable content. Before you click ‘send’ on any post, ask yourself, how is this helping me to grow my business? If you don’t have an answer, go back to the drawing board and realign your strategy.
And remember, don’t get stuck on the idea that everything has to be promotional and link back to your own product. It doesn’t!
You’re positioning yourself in your industry as a company who genuinely wants to give their customers a positive experience, not just a great product, and that’s invaluable.
Remember, don’t just do social, be social.
