Social Media Marketing: What Are You Waiting For?

According to the 2017 B2B Content Marketing Trends report, 83% of B2B companies use social media marketing as part of their content marketing strategy. In addition, the report shows that second only to email as a method of marketing communication, LinkedIn was the most used social media channel for B2B marketers with 89% saying they use the channel to distribute content.

As some marketing budgets get leaner and the competition heats up, distributors that wish to remain relevant need to get onboard with social media marketing. Although we’ve been saying this for some time here at NetPlus, we feel like some distributors are still reluctant to use social media marketing as a significant part of their overall industrial marketing efforts. Here are a few reasons we think the time is now:

• Social media is inexpensive. Businesses can create their own social media pages for free and, if they have the staffing, can manage those pages without cost as well. If that sounds daunting to you, those projects can be outsourced in a variety of different ways at different price points.
• Social media is easy to measure. Businesses can navigate the ins and outs of their social media accounts to see tangible results and engagement. Even if you have an outside company managing your accounts, you can still measure progress and success easily or arrange for a system of simple reporting from your outsourced help.
• Your customers use social media. To succeed in marketing, businesses need to be where the market is. Being absent from an arena where your customers are engaging is not an option. Businesses that actively interact with customers on social media can better promote themselves and their offerings.
• It takes less time than other marketing efforts. Social media marketing takes time, but not as much as you might think. The average small business may only spend a few hours on social media each week and they can see results in real time. The ROI for social media marketing is not a mystery so it’s worth the small investment to see tangible results.

The question distributors must ask themselves if they are still not using social media marketing is, what are you waiting for? Your customers are already there and it’s an easy, cost-effective method with measurable results.

If you’re not already, join NetPlus Alliance on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and LinkedIn Groups. Our NetPlus networks provide the latest news about our group, small business tips and videos, as well as products and promotions from your NetPlus preferred suppliers.

NetPlus Alliance has also put together a guide for our distributors and preferred suppliers in partnership with Southwire and Spinstak: Social Media Marketing for Industrial Distribution Guide. If you’d like a copy, please let us know!

By Zach Brado