When you think of social media in a business sense, it wouldn’t be surprising if you thought of those organisations who use it to interact with their retail customers. Organisations such as Nike, Apple, Cadbury’s; those whose who generally fall under the B2C umbrella.
And this is completely understandable. As an experienced web design agency serving Swansea and the surrounding area, we talk about social media regularly and some of the best examples we can give are those from B2C organisations.
However, in no way does this mean that social media isn’t suitable for B2B organisations and it really is a shame when we hear organisations not wanting to look at utilising Twitter or Facebook, for example, to develop their online presence, as the benefits can considerable.
A recent piece on Econsultancy.com actually highlighted this and gave five great examples of how B2B organisations have utilised social media to have a positive impact on their business.
Global brands such as Adobe and American Express were all mentioned and it makes for a particularly interesting read if you don’t believe social media can be used effectively in a B2B environment.
For example, looking at the Adobe case study, to coincide with the launch of their Creative Cloud product, amongst other strategies they devised an online and offline treasure hunt, utilising a range of social media platforms to provide hints, tips and clues to where the ‘treasure’ could be found.
Twitter, Instagram, FourSquare and Facebook all played their roles and helped to make the launch of their new product bigger – and arguably better – than it would have been without it.
Showing the versatility of social media in a B2B environment, to understand why it was so beneficial, it’s important to realise the basic principle of all of the social media activity – and that was to engage and interact with their target audience.
Yes, they used the resources for unique and inventive purposes, but the basic principle was the same. Providing regular, up-to-date and interesting information to their audience, they continually drove forward the launch of their new product, purely through effective, regular interaction.
And it’s this that is the most important factor when using social media for any purpose, which is the key reason why it really doesn’t matter whether you’re a B2B or B2C organisation – interaction and engagement is what your target audience want and social media allows you to deliver it perfectly.
We are more than happy to discuss the benefits of social media with any organisation and whilst we work with many clients in and around the Swansea area our catchment area does extend right across the breadth of South Wales, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.