Product Marketing Building Online Connections

In part one of our Product Marketing series, Building the Basics, we outlined the steps you need to take to create a strong foundation for your marketing campaigns and strategies. Here we will take that a step further by looking at how to go about building your online connections.

In today’s world building a community is an important business strategy. Be a connector and make networking a habit, from listing your company online to sending multiple email campaigns to distinct segmented lists.

Local SEO – Get listed

Do you know how important local SEO is for small businesses with a physical location? People underestimate the effectiveness of being listed on online business directories. Getting listed on trustworthy directories is essential for maximum impact and growth. The respected online publication, Search Engine Journal, recently published an article titled, 21 Web Directories That Still Have Value.

They go on to say:

Any business with a local presence needs to maintain their local citations with a consistent NAP, but web directories won’t help with your SEO much beyond that.
The real returns will be from the credibility and traffic they drive to your business site.

Be active on Social Media

One might not think of communicating with industrial companies on the same platforms where we post cute selfies and holiday snaps, but social media is still relevant for technical industries. Create a company page, build a following, share stimulating content, then join groups that are relevant to your industry and start linking/commenting on related posts.

As the fastest growing trend in the world, 90% of industries tend to use social media to build online connections and as part of their marketing technique. Unfortunately, the rapidly changing landscape makes it more and more difficult for a business to keep up with trends as most social media platforms keep changing their algorithms. Thus social media became more like a checklist that doesn’t bring much value. For the technical and construction industries however, it can do wonders if done right. One of the main reasons is because not many business owners in those fields acknowledge the power of it. For good reasons, one might think that no one would be interested in reading about plastics or steel plates when opening their facebook. The key is understanding what social media platforms work best for your audience, all industries can find a way of promoting themselves through social media.

What Social Media can do for your business

Questions to ask yourself to help define your social media strategy

“My industry is boring. Is social media relevant in this case?

Yes. You don’t have to sell clothes or beauty products to build online connections on social media. One of the goals in marketing is to be where your target audience is. Needless to say, everyone spends a lot of time on social media.

“Do I really need to be on every social media platform?

Construction industries should probably skip instagram, but definitely include Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

“Do I need to be consistent?

Yes. Conflicting message and lack of activity will perturb your audience.

“When should I do it/ How often?

It depends. Ideally, everyday, but it depends a lot on your resources and target audience. Sometimes it’s better to post less as long as you provide quality.

Types of content to post

Shared content:

Blog articles
Infographics Video/3D explainer videos
Testimonials
Jobsite pics

News:

Industry trends
Events
Share of a milestone

Other:

Random funny content that your audience might be interested in
Thoughts
Have a debate/ask a question: it will increase engagement

Best time to post

Getting this right is the difference between 10 shares and potentially 100 shares on a post. Let’s take a closer look at major networks and best time to share content.

Faceboook

Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best
Avoid early mornings and late nights
9am to 3pm is the best time of the day

Tuesday through Thursday are the best
Avoid weekends
8am to 5pm is the best time of the day

Twitter

Monday through thursday are the best
Avoid early mornings and late nights
12am to 3pm is the best time of the day

Youtube

Monday through Friday
Best time is from 2pm to 4pm. The reason for this time shortage is because Youtube indexes video content and every video needs a few hours before actually showing up in search results

Useful tools

There’s no need to manually upload social media posts. Schedule everything and analyze data with the following tools:

Become part of your industry’s online community

Assuming your business now has a website and a fair amount of online presence, you can start making yourself known on social media platforms. Social media is also a great place to also learn new things about your industry from others in your community. Networking online is where forums, Q&A sites and social media groups come in handy.

Forums:

They are designed to meet unique needs and help reach new measurements of success by learning and sharing with online connections who have the same interests.

Social media groups:

Joining a group of like minded individuals is
a great way of engaging and have questions answered. But don`t forget ! This is not about you. It’s all about the community and how you and others can share value.