What Types of Businesses Benefit From Social Media Marketing?

The debate on the internet about what type of businesses will benefit from social media marketing is plentiful. Both sides of the argument have some good points – the problem is that social media is always changing and growing. New social media sites are being developed daily and the established sites are constantly changing and adding features. What worked yesterday may not work today.

When debating the social media marketing questions they are usually discussing 2 types of businesses – business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C). The old school or traditional way of thinking in B2B must be face to face and salesperson driven and B2C is getting your name out to the masses.

I believe that everyone can agree that B2C companies will benefit from social media marketing. If you believe that there is a B2C company that exists that cannot benefit from social media – you are in a very very small minority. You have to realize that there are so many different types of social media today, that there is definitely at least one that will benefit all B2C businesses.

The obvious social media networks for B2C are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. It seems like new social media networks and social media types are popping up daily. Not literally, however, new social media ideas are being developed rapidly. FourSquare and QR codes are a couple of new tools in social media. Mobile loyalty/reward programs and coding online messages for your customers – just a few years ago who would have thought these would be in existence and successful.

Each of these social media outlets offers different benefits for businesses. It is important for business owners to understand the benefit, identify which one or ones will benefit their business and develop a plan. Do not just sign up and go – you will waste a lot of time and money and more than likely fail.

The traditional B2B marketing is still successful in many industries, however, is that the only way to do business? Are the customers in B2B starting to look for providers instead of waiting for them to come to their door? This is where the internet has changed B2B the most. First it was having a website to provide information about the company and that was sufficient 10 years ago. Now, the B2B customer is wanting to know more about the B2B provider. This is where social media is changing the landscape of B2B marketing. It is not the daily Facebook and Twitter posts that work in B2B, but the over 100 million member LinkedIn network.

Just having a profile and business listing on LinkedIn is just like having a website. Participating in groups, Q&A, recommendations and growing you network will give your potential clients the information they are looking for that will set you apart from the competition. Your potential clients want to know more about you and your business and they don’t want to ask you – so make it available to them and others.

So, ALL businesses can benefit from some type of social media marketing!!  Social Media is an ever changing market and the top site in 2015 probably is not even active today. I just read a blog today that used A.B.L. (Always Be Listening) as one of the ways to build a social selling machine. I agree ALWAYS BE LISTENING!!

Where do you listen?