B2B Blogging: Your “Social Media Boomerang”

In a previous article, I discussed why every business should embrace blogging. I mentioned the concept of a “Social Media Boomerang” and now would like to expand on this topic and explain why it’s the secret sauce to every successful B2B blog.

Consider your business’s website for a moment. In your effort to optimize your website, you are competing with literally thousands of other sites. Your blog is no different. Simply posting new content will not generate a surge of new traffic. Rather, the B2B blogging success formula requires multiple steps and goes something like this:

1. Publish new blog post
2. Tweet title of blog post to your Tweeple
3. Update your Facebook fan page with new blog post
4. Post blog post to your LinkedIn updates
5. Send video excerpt to your YouTube channel

Automation is key!

If this seems like a lot of work, don’t worry. For many of the steps above, there are several tools and plugins that can automate the process for you, especially where Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are concerned. A few tools that come to mind are:

• www.SocialOomph.com
• www.HootSuite.com
• www.TwitterFeed.com
• www.Ping.fm
• www.TweetBeep.com

Currently, the YouTube process is less automated and will require a few more tools of the trade. For this reason, many B2B marketers are not automating updates to their firms’ YouTube channel at this time. That said, YouTube is now the 2nd largest search engine in the world, above Yahoo and Bing, so don’t assume it’s not worth your time and effort to include YouTube in your B2B social media strategy.

Make it easy to share, bookmark & discuss content

Search Engine Land does a great job on their site of encouraging readers to ‘Share, Bookmark & Discuss’ the articles written on their site. Scroll to the bottom of this article. See the icons for Like, Tweet, Buzz and Share? Go ahead, click on the Tweet. Instantly, this article is sent to your friends and followers on your Social Media network; all that with 1 click of a button! B2B marketers should follow this approach and make it easy for those following your blog to share with their friends, business associates and online network.

Develop your own viral marketing network

As defined by Wikipedia:

“…viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.”

So, although every blog post may not “go viral” in the sense that most of us think of it, blog content is indeed spread and shared if you’ve spent the time and effort to build out your social media network.

Instead of waiting for new prospects to visit your site and stumble upon (no pun intended) your blog, be proactive by sharing content with your target audience who in turn will share with others in their network if they find the information unique, compelling and engaging.

Implement a “Social Media Boomerang”

The “Social Media Boomerang” is a term I coined this past year in developing Social Media strategies for many B2B marketers. It’s actually a very simple idea with 3 main process steps:

1. You publish new content on your firm’s blog,
2. You toss the boomerang by promoting this content via Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and You Tube, and:
3. The boomerang comes back when prospects visit your site to read the entire post and join in the conversation.

Benefits of this full circle approach

Use Social Media to gather interest, find new customers, help increase links to your site and more. However, make sure you also bring prospects back to your site and capture their information by offering valuable information and assets.

For example, prospects are usually willing to complete a short, simple registration form to receive a whitepaper, eBook, industry research, webinar, demos, or a discount on services. Remember you want prospects to register on your firm’s site… not Facebook or YouTube.

Start reaping the benefits of your social media boomerang today:

1. Create unique, compelling blog posts
2. Promote this content using your social media network
3. Drive prospects back to your website
4. Capture prospects’ registration information
5. Engage!