In this first installment of our B2B Social Media Marketing trilogy, we’ll not only tell you how to set up a corporate LinkedIn account, but also how to create ‘promoters’ of your brand and how to turn prospects into leads, and leads into sales.

1. How-to Guide:
B2B Social Media Marketing (Part I)

2. Kenneth has enjoyed a marketing career both agency
and client side. With over seven years experience
writing B2B and B2C copy, Kenneth has created
content for a wide variety of industries.
Enthusiastic about all things copy, he has a proven
track record of creating content capable of generating
leads, sales and revenue.
In the role of Head of Content at Really B2B (a
Sunday Times Top 100 firm and ranked agency in
B2B Marketing‟s Agency League), Kenneth is
responsible for creating a strong brand personality
and crafting content for our B2B clients which
generates action and solid ROI.
Kenneth is passionate about writing that gets results.
The Author
Kenneth Connolly
www.reallyb2b.com

3. Deciding to write a series of how-to guides on the uses and
benefits of social media in the world of B2B marketing is like
opening a dustbin-sized can of worms. The entire social media
„landscape‟ changes so quickly that by the time you‟ve read to
the bottom of this page, one social media site will probably have
dropped out of fashion and another one taken its place. So why
then did I decide to go ahead and write these guides?
The simple answer is results. Here at Really B2B we‟re always
ready to pounce on the next technological advance or
behavioural change, as long as we can measure and prove it
generates leads, sales and ROI.
Of the top 14 well-known social media sites (shown on the
left), this trilogy of how-to guides is going to specifically discuss
the top 4 which we know, from our own experience with
clients, currently offer the best opportunity to support your
business growth and revenue generation in the B2B space.
In part one of this series we‟ll discuss in-depth the importance of
blogging and the benefits of LinkedIn when generating B2B
leads.
Social Media: websites and applications that enable users to
create and share content or to participate in social networking.
Percentage of B2B Marketers Who Use
Various Social Media Sites to Distribute
Content
Source: 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks – CM1/MarketingProfs
www.reallyb2b.com

4. B2B marketers who use
blogs generate 67% more
leads per month than those
who do not”
Factbrowser.com
When we talk about social media we very rarely throw the word „blog‟ into
discussions and yet this is where it all begins. Granted, when blogging first
became popular it was simply a way for people to keep an online journal
and discuss things like „I knitted my cat some slippers‟. But
nowadays, blogging is an essential part of every B2B inbound marketing
campaign and a great way to create a community of subscribers and
generate comments, feedback and engagement with you and your
business.
Other benefits of blogging also include:
• Maintaining contact with your prospects and customer database on a
regular basis
• Provide comments on wider issues such as industry related news
• Reuse and repurpose more extensive content such as ebooks, white
papers or research data to drive prospects to your landing pages
• Build your brand personality, show thought leadership and display an
understanding of and solution to your prospects‟ issues.
Statistics like the one shown on the left generally provoke the same
reaction in Managing Directors and Sales Directors – „we need to get
blogging and quickly bring in some leads‟. But, this is not what blogging is
about. It will help to generate leads over time, but it‟s not going to have
your phone ringing off the hook within a week.
Here‟s why...
Blogging
“
www.reallyb2b.com

5. The opportunity to generate
leads via your blog comes
when you start blogging
about your larger pieces of
content
Blogging and social media is about relationships. It‟s a place where
you can connect with your prospects, establish your brand identity
and build a relationship of trust and shared knowledge. By
maintaining this display of thought leadership and avoiding the sales-
pitch, you give your prospects the chance to come to you with the
understanding that your product/service is the solution to their
concerns.
It won‟t happen overnight, that much is for sure. But by blogging
regularly, your community of subscribers will grow, as will their
engagement in the form of comments/feedback and sharing via social
media channels.
The opportunity to generate leads via your blog comes when you start
blogging about your larger pieces of content. By discussing your
latest ebook/white paper/case study or even including an excerpt
from the publication on your blog, you can start to push your
prospects to your landing pages (to find out more about landing
pages, download our how-to guide to Inbound Marketing).
As if blogging wasn‟t already offering enough fantastic benefits, it can
also help your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Search engines
like to discover new content and will review the pages of a blog more
regularly than a full website and help push your blog page further up
the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Blogging Continued
www.reallyb2b.com

6. • Approximately 200 million (200,000,000): Total LinkedIn users worldwide
• 2: Number of people who sign-up to LinkedIn every second
• More than 1 million (1,000,000+): Number of Groups on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is considered to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of social media for businesses. Why?
The simple answer is because LinkedIn has more professionals than any other network. It‟s even been referred to
as a „virtual rolodex‟. If you‟re looking to target key decision-makers within a business or industry, then LinkedIn is
the place to be.
“Within the UK alone there are over 10 million professional users and 2 million plus are Directors and
above” - thelinkedinman.com
How-to: LinkedIn
www.reallyb2b.com

7. LinkedIn generates the
highest visitor-to-lead
conversion
The benefit of a LinkedIn presence for a business is perfectly illustrated in
this data from a recent Hubspot report: „LinkedIn generated the highest
visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.60%, four times higher than Twitter
(0.67%) and seven times better than Facebook (0.39%)‟.
You‟ll see later in this series of guides that when creating a Facebook page
for your business there is a certain opportunity for artistic license and a
more „social‟ aspect. However, with LinkedIn, it‟s all business. Your
LinkedIn page may be a determining factor in whether your prospect
travels through the sales funnel to become a customer, or simply thinks
your company looks amateurish and untrustworthy.
Therefore, make sure your LinkedIn business page looks like that of an
industry leader. You will eventually be using this social media page as an
outlet to show your thought leadership, so make sure your profile page
equally suggests your expert criteria.
The branding on the page must be exact, as any inconsistencies may be
considered an indication of unprofessionalism and a lack of brand
understanding. When entering information about your company in the
„Home‟ section, be sure to „cut to the chase‟. This is not the place for a
sales pitch or a long-winded speech, simply mention the products/services
you offer, and why you are an expert in this field.
As with all social media pages, make sure you include your company
logo, a link back to your website and your contact details.
LinkedIn: Business Page Creation
www.reallyb2b.com

8. Your staff are vitally
important and help to
cement the
professionalism and
expertise of your
company in the eyes of
your prospects
On LinkedIn, key members of staff within your company become
representatives and advertisements for your brand. This means two things...
firstly, it is advisable to create profile guidelines for employees‟ profile pages.
Secondly, each key staff member can become a marketing channel for your
company.
In your profile guidelines, make sure that your key staff members maintain a
level of professionalism on their LinkedIn profile pages (i.e. no inappropriate or
offensive profile photos – use your common sense here). Staff accounts should
also mention the products/services and expertise of your company within their
current employment section.
Your key staff should also:
• Build their own professional network (i.e. connect with prospects, customers
and key opinion leaders
• Create their individual brand through knowledge sharing on their profile and
with key groups and by participating in polls
The objectives of these staff members‟ profiles should be...
• To share your news and content through status updates (to their own
networks)
• Join groups focused around your specific industry
• Participate in relevant discussions and offer thought leadership content or
answer questions related to key business issues
LinkedIn: Key Staff Profile Pages
www.reallyb2b.com

9. To save time, let a
member of staff „manage‟
your social media account
These „promoters‟ of your brand are vitally important and help to cement the
professionalism and expertise of your company in the eyes of your
prospects.
Given that regularly updating your own social media account can take time
which you may not have, why not consider letting others „manage‟ your
personal account? This simply means letting trusted members of staff log
into your account and make updates and answer comments on your behalf.
This is a great way to maintain your own personal social media presence
without spreading yourself too thin.
Just be careful who you allow to manage your account. Don‟t give your
username and password to that guy in your office called „Crazy Kevin‟.
LinkedIn: Key Staff Profile Pages
Continued
www.reallyb2b.com

10. Only 30% of your social
media posts should be self-
promotion. The other 70%
should be valuable
information for your
followers and not related to
your brand
The phrase LinkedIn „Groups‟ was mentioned briefly on the last page, but
just to clarify, a Group is a collection of like-minded professionals who have
joined a forum where they can each share information and take part in
specific discussions.
These groups are a fantastic way to connect not just with other
professionals within your industry, but also prospects. You can see what
your prospects are talking about and understand their burning
issues, concerns and pain points too.
There are a couple of things to remember though when you join a group.
The first and most obvious is that they are not a place to start „spamming‟
others with advertisements for your products, services or content.
Yes, there will come a time when you can offer your latest ebook/white
paper to other group members but don‟t go in „all guns blazing‟ from day
one.
Groups are a great place to gain trust and become an influencer (group
members whose contributions cause the most contributions from other
group members).
Start your own discussion, respond to peoples‟ questions, posts and
comments and then measure the results.
Once you have become established within the group, gained the trust of
your prospects and shown that you care about their feedback, then you can
gradually suggest that they download your latest piece of content or get in
touch with you.
LinkedIn: Groups
www.reallyb2b.com

11. LinkedIn offers better
segmentation to get your
ad in front of the exact
prospects you are looking
for
Other social media sites such as Facebook let you target your
prospects based on certain pieces of profile data such as
location, Likes and interests. But, if you are hoping to get your ad in
front of a specific decision-maker with a particular job function who
works in a specific sized company, then LinkedIn Ads are for you.
LinkedIn Ads offer a Pay Per Click option meaning you only incur a
charge when someone clicks on your ad, but in return, you get to
target your advertising to the exact person/people you are looking
for.
Target your ads using data such as:
• Job Titles
• Job Functions
• Industries
• Company Size
• Plus many more...
With Google Ads becoming increasingly overcrowded and
expensive, and Facebook Ads not offering strong enough B2B
targeting options, the smart money is now being spent on LinkedIn
Ads.
LinkedIn: Ads
www.reallyb2b.com

12. In order to gauge the success of a LinkedIn campaign, the measurements and KPIs
need to change. These are important for both your corporate account and also your
key staff accounts. The data which needs to be collected and analysed is:
LinkedIn: Measurements & KPIs
Corporate Account Key Staff Accounts
Total connections
Likes, Comments and Shares on page
posts
Responses to a question or an event
Cost Per Click
Conversion to follower
Cost per follower
Total connections
Likes, Comments and Shares on page
posts
Responses to a question or an event
The information mentioned above can be gathered easily using a combination of
data from LinkedIn and also your own analysis. However, in order to gather the
information shown below, you will need to either use some form of tracking software
or even a marketing automation tool.
• Conversion to download
• Cost per download
• Leads
It should go without saying that when it comes to online marketing these days, test,
test and test again. With so many metrics available, there is no excuse for „hoping‟
something works anymore. You are now able to measure almost every aspect of
your activities and therefore experiment with them until you get the desired results.
This is not just the case with LinkedIn, but with all of your social media marketing too.
And believe me when I say that we practice what we preach. It‟s through testing and
amending that we have managed to secure leads and sales for our clients via social
media.
With so many metrics
available, there is no
excuse for „hoping‟
something works
anymore
www.reallyb2b.com

13. Conclusion
So, there you go, you now know the importance of blogging and LinkedIn for B2B
marketing. These two communication channels not only allow you to regularly engage your
prospects, leads and customers with new content and information (while driving them to
your landing pages), but also specifically target the high-quality leads you‟ve been looking
for (based on in-depth criteria).
What‟s next? Well, the second how-to guide in this series will discuss the micro-blogging mammoth that is Twitter. We may
not be able to keep the text under 140 characters, but you can rest assured that it‟ll be filled with valuable information and
tips on how to generate revenue and measure ROI using the most „reactive‟ of all social media channels.
We‟ll also discuss the best frequency for your social updates and how you should react to feedback and comments in a
public environment.
Keep your eyes peeled for „How-to Guide: B2B Social Media Marketing (Part II)‟ coming soon. But don‟t worry, we‟ll let
you know when it‟s available.
www.reallyb2b.com

14. LOOKING FOR BUSINESS
GROWTH?
If you‟re interested in improving your lead generation
processes, request a meeting.
We‟d love to discuss your objectives and how our
social media marketing services can help support your
business growth.
© Really B2B, 1000 Lakeside, Western Road, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hants, PO6 3EN
www.reallyb2b.com
Call us on
0845 519 8517