Social media is entering its 20s.

No, really. LinkedIn was founded in 2003, Facebook in 2004. There are people in the workforce today who can’t remember life before social networking sites existed.

And like most 20-year-olds, social media is having a quarter life crisis: a questioning of purpose, a lack of cohesive identity, and uncertainty about the future.

All of which makes marketing on social media more challenging than ever. We’re not just contending with new channels, algorithm updates and pay-for-play (although all of those are at work, too). We’re contending with social sites defining and redefining themselves. And at the same time, people are re-evaluating how they use these sites, too.

Amid all of these shifts, one thing remains certain: B2B brands need to be showing up for potential customers on social media.

Here are the latest B2B social media marketing best practices to help you reach your audience.

B2B social media marketing best practices for 2024

These are helpful general guidelines for success on any social media channel.

1. Show up on the right channels in the right context

It’s important to put your time and resources towards the channels where your audience is already spending time. For B2B, LinkedIn is a given. Your mileage may vary for the other channels, however. We have seen financial services and technology clients have great success on Facebook, for example — counterintuitive as it may seem.

It’s really a case of knowing your audience demographics and how they overlap with the channel. Pew Research’s Social Media Fact Sheet is a great place to start.

Context is also key: While LinkedIn’s algorithm promotes multi-slide document posts, a wall of text will send Instagram screaming for the hills. Behind-the-scenes videos of office life or “day in the life” content could take off on TikTok, but might seem less relevant on LinkedIn.

Channel + context + great content is a good foundation for a successful social media strategy.

2. Tailor content to different audiences

B2B buying committees are made up of people at differing levels of seniority, in a wide variety of roles, each with their own pain points and questions. There’s no such thing as a single audience for your B2B social posts — one-size-fits-all messaging won’t fit anyone.

It’s important to understand your audiences, develop personas, and target content to each one.

Luckily, creating content for five different personas doesn’t mean 5x the workload. Imagine you have a PDF report that you’d like to share on LinkedIn: “The Comprehensive Guide to Our Industry.” Take that content, add 15-20% more new content targeted at a persona, and repost as “The IT Leader’s Comprehensive Guide to Our Industry,” and so on.

3. Balance and coordinate paid and organic strategies

We’re long past the days when social media channels were good for purely organic reach. It takes a solid paid strategy to build a follower base. It even takes a strong paid strategy to get your content to your existing base.

Here are a few ways to integrate your paid and organic strategies:

• Focus paid budget on your lead-gen content.
• Augment your paid budget with organic posts that feature snippets of the lead-gen content.
• Post your most intriguing, engagement-worthy content organically.
• Amplify the posts that get the most engagement; they’re clearly resonating with your audience.
• Coordinate messaging between paid and organic for a consistent brand experience.

4. Go all in on multimedia

Social media algorithms are showing a marked preference for visual and video content. A recent report found that each image added to a LinkedIn post increases potential reach by 5%, for up to five images. Video on LinkedIn earns 3x the engagement of text posts. Even text-forward sites like X and Threads are getting in on the multimedia game.

Save the plain text posts for when you have a meaningful conversation-starter meant to drive engagement on the platform. Then make sure your brand keeps up its end of the conversation — respond to posts quickly and with enough material to keep the chat going.

5. Integrate influencers

This may shock some of you, but TopRank Marketing is pretty sold on B2B influencer marketing. Influencers and social media are a match made in heaven for brands. It’s an easy way to get your content in front of a relevant new audience.

Here are just a few ways you can add influencers to your social media strategy:

• Co-create content with influencers, post excerpts as images with quotes.
• Give influencers social media kits (image files, suggested text, hashtags, etc) to help promote co-created content.
• Enlist influencers for social-first content on your brand account.
• Sponsor a day-long account takeover for a high-profile influencer.

And remember, B2B influencers are those who can truly engage and persuade your audience, not just those with the biggest follower count. Look for people whose content gets engagement, resharing, and discussion.

Another often-overlooked source of influence: your employees. They have networks of their own, which they reach with authentic and personal voices.

6. Explore new channels

New social media sites come and go — RIP Clubhouse and Blab — but it’s worth checking out some of the latest crop. BlueSky just opened their platform to the public. Mastodon and Discord are decentralized sites with private-run servers dedicated to different fandoms and topics. Reddit has been around for a while but is now actively courting brands.

For all of these channels, and whatever comes up next, keep these principles in mind: The right content, context and audience, promoted with paid and organic, featuring truly influential thought leaders.

Need help creating a social media strategy? Contact us today.

The post The New Best Practices for B2B Social Media Marketing appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

Source:: toprankblog.com

In the ever-evolving landscape of eCommerce, staying ahead requires constant adaptation and strategic insights. The Fospha State of eCommerce Report for Q1 2024 brings valuable data to the forefront, guiding marketers, advertisers, business owners, and agencies in the eCommerce industry on where to channel their efforts for maximum return.

The report reveals a significant underinvestment in paid social channels, with advertisers reaching only 59% of their potential, suggesting an opportunity to nearly double spend for profitable returns.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Meta and TikTok emerge as leaders in paid social success, with Meta boasting the highest relative Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Notably, TikTok stands out for new customer acquisition, outpacing other channels in driving new conversions.
• Snapchat’s major update has catapulted it as a growth channel worth watching, with a remarkable 504% increase in ROAS year-over-year.
• The report highlights a widespread issue in the industry: the underrepresentation of impressions-led channels by Google Analytics and ad platforms‘ own attribution models. This discrepancy emphasizes the need for standardized measurement methods to accurately report performance.

Now is the time to reassess your investment in paid social, explore the potential of emerging channels like Snapchat, and adopt reliable measurement methods to navigate the complex digital marketing landscape effectively.

For a deep dive into these insights and to leverage them for your digital strategy, download the full Fospha State of eCommerce Report Q1 2024. Embrace the data-driven insights to refine your approach, optimize spend across platforms, and drive your eCommerce brand towards profitable growth.

The post Fospha’s Insights to Unlock eCommerce Growth in 2024 appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Source:: searchenginewatch.com

Fospha and Snap announced a partnership that will further enable eCommerce advertisers to measure their Snapchat campaigns.

What’s the problem this partnership is solving?

Measuring the true impact of impressions-led advertising has long been a tough task, especially with new privacy measures, which have made getting the right data even harder.

Fospha has found that basic click-tracking methods (like last-click and MTA) don’t fully recognize the value of upper-funnel activity, with a 2023 study finding that these methods miss about 74% of the sales that come from impression-based media. Across their client base, Fospha also found that brands that aren’t investing in higher-funnel activity like Snapchat have significantly higher acquisition cost and lower return on advertising spend.

Fospha’s latest report reveals Snapchat to be a key growth channel amongst their brands, with ROAS increasing by 504% from 2022 to 2023, even while spend grew 76% YoY. Fospha states that this demonstrates an opportunity to capitalize on strong performance at higher spend levels.

On Snap’s Q4 2023 earnings call, co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel highlighted the importance of continuing to drive improved performance for advertising partners as a focus for Snap in 2024. Fospha data supports this, showing Snap ROAS has been rising since the company began updating its performance products in late 2022 and early 2023. The Fospha partnership highlights the importance for both companies of empowering brands to improve their attribution capabilities, identify growth opportunities, and maximize returns on their advertising investment.

Why Fospha?

Fospha is pioneering a transformational new approach to cross-channel digital marketing measurement. A no-code implementation means clients are live in 2 to 3 weeks with a year of full funnel performance (impressions, clicks, zero-party data) modelled and it’s completely privacy-safe (no user-level personal data is used).

Sam Carter, Fospha CEO, said, “We’re delighted that Snap is certifying Fospha as a key partner, further validating our mission to help eCommerce brands spend with confidence. Our product allows us to clearly see the massive unrealized opportunity that brands have in paid social media. We’re also particularly bullish on Snap based on the data we see coming in from advertisers. Working with the Snap team to help retailers realize the potential here is really exciting.”

To find out more, reach out to Fospha or your Snapchat account manager for more details.

The post Snap Selects Fospha as Measurement Partner for Retail eCommerce appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Source:: searchenginewatch.com

Understanding media performance in digital marketing is like navigating a maze that constantly changes. The emergence of platforms like TikTok has revolutionized how brands connect with their audience, adding layers of complexity and opportunity. However, with regulatory changes such as GDPR and iOS 14.5 updates, eCommerce brands are now facing a growing challenge: gaining clear visibility into the performance of their media mix channels.

Top of Funnel Marketing

Top-of-funnel marketing is about more than just creating buzz; it’s about laying a sustainable foundation for growth. Imagine it as the first chapter of an engaging novel, where the story begins, intrigue is created, and the relationship with the reader—or in this case, the customer—starts to form.

Historically, due to the difficulty in tracking and measuring the impact of these top-of-funnel activities, brands have gravitated towards bottom-of-funnel advertising, where results are more tangible, like direct sales and conversions. However, this approach often overlooks a critical aspect of customer acquisition and brand building.

According to a Fospha report, brands that consistently invest in top-of-funnel activities for a minimum of 10 months are likely to see reduced customer acquisition costs and a more robust Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Specifically, the report reveals that brands prioritizing long-term brand awareness strategies can improve their ROAS by 42% and decrease acquisition costs by 35%, in comparison to brands that concentrate exclusively on conversion-focused activities.

The Challenges of Current Measurement Practices

The digital advertising landscape has evolved significantly over the past five years, growing more complex and demanding advanced measurement techniques.

Traditional pixel- and cookie-based methods, which have been the mainstay of most brands, are losing their effectiveness due to regulatory changes like GDPR, CCPA, and iOS 14.5, which prioritise consumer privacy over technological efficacy. This has led to a significant reduction in visibility, especially in the early stages of the customer journey. Consequently, marketing attribution models that do not account for top-of-funnel activities may overestimate the effectiveness of lower-funnel activities.

Fospha x TikTok

On Monday 8 Jan 2024, TikTok introduced Fospha as one of the measurement partners. This partnership represents a significant development in the intricate world of digital marketing, highlighting the importance of not solely relying on bottom-of-funnel metrics for brands aiming to achieve sustainable growth and broad market reach.

Fospha’s solution empowers brands to measure their paid media spend across platforms like TikTok in a data-driven way that aligns with profitability. This means that brands can now gain insights into the impact of their top-of-funnel activities, optimize their strategies accordingly, and scale their efforts without sacrificing their bottom line.

Case Study

Let’s take a closer look at The Essence Vault, a fragrance brand that faced the common dilemma of digital expansion. By embracing TikTok’s dynamic platform and partnering with Fospha, they saw a 20% increase in revenue and a 7% improvement in ROAS, illustrating the power of a data-driven, top-of-funnel approach.

Conclusion

TikTok has exploded in popularity, emerging as a significant alternative ad channel. The platform has shown strong returns, outperforming other growing platforms like YouTube. Top-of-funnel marketing is more than just an initial handshake with potential customers; it’s an indispensable part of a brand’s growth strategy in today’s complex advertising ecosystem. With strategic tools and partnerships like Fospha and TikTok, brands can confidently navigate this landscape, ensuring that every stage of the marketing funnel is optimised for success. As we look towards the future of digital advertising, it’s clear that understanding and leveraging top-of-funnel marketing is not just a strategy, but a necessity for sustainable growth and success.

For further information on this partnership, visit Fospha’s blog and TikTok for Business Blog.

The post Fospha as TikTok’s New Measurement Partner appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Source:: searchenginewatch.com

Whether you are new to SEO or an experienced SEO junkie, one cannot deny the importance of content to rank well on search engines such as Google and Bing.

Google has often referred to the notion that ‘content is king‘ and have made the use of content very key to their algorithms over the years. Such as E-E-A-T update (expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness) and last month’s Google Helpful Content Update which either rewarded or downgraded websites based on the quality and helpfulness of their content.

With this in mind, we speak to some industry experts and growing businesses to understand how they use content to build authority in their industry.

Create guides with statistics

“For a new or existing brand, it is always helpful to add blog posts and guides to their website,” explains Richard Allan, co-founder of energy startup, Warmable.

“Having lots of content shows that you have substance and a website with 50 pages and posts is likely to outrank a site with just 5 or 10.”

However, making this content statistic driven and honing in on real things that people are looking for is a very good way to gain authority.

“So rather than adding the top 10 tips for this or how to save money on that, consider phrases such as these below and be sure to add key statistics high up the page and in the meta-data to make it stand out in the SERPs.”

• What percentage of people use ….
• What is the number of people that …
• How many people do / do not ….
• How much money can be saved by …
• How many people in the US/UK are …
• How much is this (name) industry worth?
• How many people in the US use …

“A lot of users and indeed journalists are looking for that killer statistic, so you need to be able to show it very early and clearly and have it backed up by a strong source.”

“You will also find that this helps with natural link building because if you rank top for a good phrase or statistical-based question, a journalist will naturally link to you and very often they just take one of the first sources that they see on Google as fact. You would be surprised how many simple and quality links you could generate.”

The layout of the content is key

“How you present your content is very important,” explains Justine Gray of content platform, Trending Impact.

To be truly educational, authoritative and informative, you have to make the content very palatable and easy to digest. This can be as simple as adding key bullet points in the beginning of the piece of content to give an overview, using short paragraphs to make clear points and using graphs or images with data to make it stand out. Importantly, you need to get into the information early on and avoid waffling for the sake of increasing the word count.

“A nice feature to organise your text includes using accordion tabs for FAQs, dropdown menus and clickable tabs at the top of the page that take you straight to the desired section,” says Gray.

Use people and use authority figures

Google has added more weighting to the use of authors, guest writers and real expertise behind any guides or blog posts.

With reference to the recent Google Helpful Content Update, webmasters will gain greater authority from having a real face or team member clearly stated as the author on a piece of content, including landing pages and blog posts.

Saying things such as ‘reviewed by‘ and ‘edited by‘ will add a lot of credibility, especially if it has a bio which includes relevant qualifications or suggests years of experience – and this is perfect for medical and financial industries.

Additionally, authors can add their Linkedin and Twitter profile to their bio for added effect.

“We have found that using guest writers who are experts in their fields adds great value,” explains Dr Max Linden, founder of The Hawker Online. “Finding people who run companies, have followers or like putting themselves out there is a good place to start.

“Not only is guest and expertly contributed content more insightful and personable, but you can share it on your social network and theirs too to maximize reach.”

Don’t just use text, use video

“As we all know today, content is not just textual but highly visual,” informs Dean Benzaken, co-founder of Techvolutionary.

“With the help of AI, there are a lot of ways to take your existing content and quickly turn it into voice notes that people can click and hear on the page.”

In addition, videos add great value to any piece of content, and you have some superb tools to help you facilitate this today. So, if you have a long video, you can use Opus to break it down into 10 smaller videos with captions included, or you can use Synthesia to create an AI avatar to auto-generate the text. The opportunities are vast to make your content standout and to create authority in your space.

The post Establishing niche authority: leveraging strategic content as a key differentiator appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Source:: searchenginewatch.com