If you are looking to attract business leaders on LinkedIn, quality content helps executives learn how to solve business issues and prove you are an influencer.
Buyers are Looking for Your Expertise
Social media is an important part of the B2B buyer’s journey. Senior executives and B2B buyers turn to social media at two distinct times during their decision-making process:
#1 After the company has decided that it is worth investing in a solution.
#2 When executives are seeking answers regarding how they can solve their specific problem.
Turning to Third-Party Experts
Executives seek experts when looking for possible solutions to their problems, to discover vendors who may have a viable solution, and to create a short-list of vendors to contact. These third-party experts can be found in many places, including social media sites, blogs, forums, mastermind groups, and industry Internet magazines.
When your content answers common questions your ideal buyer has, you create the perfect opportunity for prospects to learn about your business. The more in-depth your content is, the better chance you have that your prospect will find you.
B2B buyers may find your content in different ways:
- Content that is over 2,000 words long consistently ranks high in Google results
- Long-form content receives more social shares
- When you consistently publish long-form content, you are seen as an authority
- Influencers often link to authoritative long-form content.
Social Media Informs Decisions
Once a short-list of vendors is created, a decision-maker will seek answers to specific questions. These days, they will often turn to social media to learn from peers about the solutions and vendors on their short-list.
Case studies: Sharing how your solution works and how it has been implemented successfully will go a long way to demonstrate how they can also benefit from your solution. Social proof published on your company website and social media sites are a great way for potential buyers to learn more about your solutions.
Testimonials and Brand Advocates: Most people, including executives, want to know what others have to say about your service. Testimonials from satisfied customers on social media and your website will give prospects a comfort level that just talking to you may not. If you have brand advocates, encourage them to share their positive experiences with you. If the executives like what they see online, they will reach out to your company.
B2B Social Media Lead Generation and Quality Content
Effective lead generation techniques include nurturing qualified prospects until they are ready to buy. If you can attract the attention of a prospect early in the buyer’s journey, then you will be able to nurture them and qualify them to make sure the two of you are a good fit for one another.
Providing value to buyers early in the sales process increases your chance of converting that prospect into a buyer.
Part of the lead generation process is sharing curated and company-generated content with prospects that you feel will help them solve common problems. When you share content that answers a question the buyer is currently researching, you provide them with value. When you share original, company generated content that answers a question the prospect may have, they will see you as an expert.
Becoming an influencer as part of a social media lead generation strategy increases your chances of being found by your ideal buyer. If you are seen as a third-party expert, then you will increase the likelihood that prospects will find you when they are researching possible solutions and vendors. Blogging frequently about common problems your market faces, answering questions on forums, commenting in groups on social media sites, and posting regularly on industry online magazines will showcase your industry expertise and establish you as an influencer.
If you are seen as an authority, peers will share your content with executives who are researching a problem in your area of expertise. If you generate enough quality content on a specific topic, then when a decision-maker researches that topic online, one or more of the sites where your content is published will appear.
A great place to establish yourself as an influencer is LinkedIn. If you are in the B2B service industry, becoming an influencer on LinkedIn will boost your visibility as part of the lead generation process. Becoming a social media influencer will make prospects automatically turn to you in the early stages of their research.
Unofficial LinkedIn Influencers can still help their network. To become an official LinkedIn Influencer, you have to be invited by LinkedIn and meet a specific set of criteria. However, unlike other social media sites, LinkedIn has a distinct set of criteria they use to determine an official LinkedIn influencer. However, you can be an influencer on LinkedIn without having the title officially added to your LinkedIn profile.
Providing content that is engaging, tells a story, and brings value to your network and other members of LinkedIn will allow you to help people in your market. Helping others is one of the main ways an influencer stands out from someone who is just knowledgeable in a particular field. When you continuously look for ways to help people in your network, you can become an unofficial LinkedIn influencer.
LinkedIn Content Marketing and B2B Social Media Lead Generation
Content marketing will help attract more attention to company generated content. LinkedIn content marketing should be incorporated in your B2B social media lead generation strategy. When you have valuable information to share with your network, you are able to increase search engine results for your high-quality content.
LinkedIn content marketing elements in social media lead generation strategy can include:
- Sharing a link to a guest post article in your newsfeed
- Creating a native video for a blog post and link to that post
- Writing a LinkedIn article and linking to a relevant blog post, case study or e-book
- Include links to your best company content in the Summary and Experience sections of your LinkedIn profile
- Send a direct message to specific first-degree connections who will find specific content relevant.
Finding different ways to share company-generated content on LinkedIn will ensure that your first-degree connections don’t feel bombarded by your LinkedIn content marketing strategy. Those who are researching specific topics on LinkedIn will also be more likely to find your content using this approach.
Your B2B social media lead generation strategy should include finding ways to provide value to nurture prospects. If you can attract buyers when they are searching for third-party experts in their decision-making process, you will be able to increase your chances of converting the prospect into a sale. By creating quality content, you are positioning the company as an expert, answering common questions to provide value, and increasing the likelihood that prospects will come to you as part of their buyer’s journey.
Are you ready to attract decision-makers to you via a robust social media lead generation strategy? Are you looking to effectively use LinkedIn as part of your overall content marketing strategy? If so, we invite you to have a conversation with one of our LinkedIn strategy experts. Whether or not you decide to work with us, we will offer some insights and strategies that can help you be more successful. Here is a LINK to schedule.
Article Written by RevGrow’s Amanda Beasley
About RevGrow
RevGrow is a B2B LinkedIn Marketing and Lead Generation firm based in Dallas, but proudly serves clients throughout the United States. RevGrow specializes in helping business owners, consulting firms and sales professionals grow their revenue by generating a steady flow of qualified leads and targeted C-level appointments, while positioning you as the authority in your field and someone prospects will know, like and trust. You can connect with RevGrow on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.
