Use of social media as a business information resource by Company Size

Companies with 10 employees or less tend to use social media the most as a business information resource, followed by mid size companies (100-499 employees), Small businesses (11-99 employees) and large corporations (500+ employees).

Most popular social media resources for information

Out of the 2,393 participants, the top five resources for information included:

1. Attending webinars or listening to podcasts – 69.1%
2. Read user ratings and reviews for business products or services – 62.2%
3. Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites – 62.1%
4. Visit company blogs – 55.1%
5. Conduct searches for information on social media sites – 54.5%

Usefulness of different social media for business information

It was interesting to see that the five most popular resources were not also all the five most useful.  Those ended up being:

1. Attending webinars or listening to podcasts
2. Read user ratings and reviews for business products or services
3. Subscribe to RSS Feeds of business related news or information sites
4. Read or download business related content on 3^rd party content sharing sites
5. Participate in online business communities or forums

Number of social media sites used to find business information

Surprisingly 63.8% of respondents use five or more social media sites to get information and resources.  14.4% use ten or more.

35 Content Ideas for B2B eNewsletters  – by @galendy at Proteus B2B Marketing

Ever have writers block when it comes to your company blog or newsletter?  Galen does a great job of providing 35 different ideas on generating great content that your prospects and customers will want to read. I actually printed this one out and it will sit next to my PC for reference.

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4 Ways to Build Relationships with Web Content by @shannonpaul as a guest post on PR Squared

Shannon Paul gives examples of great pieces of work like Freaks and Geeks and Shawshank Redemption (I’ll throw in “Arrested Development”) that didn’t do so well when they came out and questions whether better marketing and PR could have made a difference. She then goes on to give four great tips on building online relationships via online content.

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SEO For Product Pages  by @tompick on his WebMarketCentral Blog

Tom Pick makes a great point on how companies spend time managing SEO and key words for blog posts or news releases but not as much, if any, for their product pages.  In his post, he gives great tips on what companies can do to get the most SEO out of their product and service pages.

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101 Ways To Promote A New Blog  by @dturnbull

David Turnbull’s guest post on Daily Blog Tips provides a 101 great ideas for promoting your new blog.  Many could also be used for blogs that have been around awhile and are still looking to grow. 

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An Inbound Marketer’s Introduction To Twitter Lists by @HubSpot

If you didn’t know, Twitter came out with a new feature called Twitter lists this week.  HubSpot’s Rick Burnes discusses why you should use them and how to get started.

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Environment aside, who reads hard copy brochures and newsletters anymore? How often is the information actually beneficial, and how much are you spending on making these ignored pamphlets? Almost everything people get in the mail that isn’t a Christmas card or a bill gets thrown away. Things need to be short, concise, convenient and useful for people to be willing to take the time to look at them. We are in a fast paced age of multi-tasking frenzy. Don’t hold people back with your wordy glossy handouts.

Email marketing is far more beneficial. People can skim it, keep it, reference it, and send it to their friends. Email marketing allows hyper links, and one click commenting abilities. Plus, if someone doesn’t want the information you’ve sent him or her, there is no paper wasted when the delete button is clicked.

It’s a simple message. There is no point to hard copies anymore, especially brochures. Besides the doctor’s office, nobody is going to take the time to read what you have to say. Stop spending your money and go green.

(Photo Go Green or Go Home by Little Miss Sunshine)

What are Twitter Lists?

Lists are groups of Twitter users that you can follow at once.  For those that use outside applications to manage Twitter such as Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or Seesmic, this is similar to creating a group.  The major difference is instead of this collection of users only being available to you, it’s available to everyone using Twitter to follow. This makes it much more efficient to follow a group of users you’re interested in. i.e. You can follow the whole team at FYIndOut by following our FYIndOut Team list.

Why should our company create a Twitter List?

Easier to connect

First of all, creating a list of users within your company makes it much easier for someone to follow and connect with your entire team.  If a user has to go through 20 clicks to follow everyone, they probably won’t do it but if you give them to ability to connect with you in one click the odds are much higher that they will.

You’re in control

Another reason to create a list is that you control who’s on it and keep your followers aligned with your company.  If someone follows a member of your team and that person leaves your company, you may lose your connection with that person altogether.  However, if they’re following your team list, you have the ability to add and remove users from that list as needed and anyone following that list always stays in touch with your current team.

Build your reputation

By creating lists related to your industry you also build your reputation as a thought leader in your area.  For example, you can see our B2B Social Media list here.  We’re still growing it out so let us know if you’d like to be added.

Help others

Finally, and most important, creating lists helps others.  It helps those on your lists to gain more followers and find a new audience that may not have heard of them and it helps those that follow the list connect with a group of people they care about in an efficient manner.

How to create a Twitter List

1. When you go to your Twitter home page, you should see the banner at the top that tells you about the new feature.  Click the “Create a new list” button.

OR

If you’re on someone else’s Twitter page there is a new “Lists” dropdown in the right side of the body.  Click the “New list” option.

2. Enter the List name you would like to use for the list.  The URL for the list will be twitter.com/[your username]/[list name].

3. Select whether you want the list to be public or private.  If it’s public, anyone will be able to see and follow your list.

4. Click the “Create list” button to save the list.

How to add people to your Twitter list

1. When you see someone you would like to add to a list, simply click the “Lists” dropdown and click the checkbox next to the list you would like to add them to.  It’s that simple.

We’re just beginning to experiment with Twitter lists and we suggest you do the same.  The potential and value for these lists are quite compelling so the earlier you start and create a list that others will follow, the better.

Top 10 Lessons Small Businesses Can Takeaway from Smart Content Marketers – by @newtbarrett

Newt Barrett provides 10 lessons that apply to companies of every size, but will bring outsized benefits to small companies when they use marketing brains to outmaneuver marketing brawn

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5 Basic Tips for Video Optimization by @MichelleBowles at TopRank

Michelle Bowles from TopRank shares SEO tips to get the most views for your videos.

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Why Social Search Is THE Justification Of Social Media For B2B by @kbodnar32 at Social Media B2B

Kipp Bodnar from Social Media B2B explains social search, shares a video from Google giving an example, and then goes on to share how social search will impact B2B companies

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10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips by @rosskimbarovsky

Ross Kimbarovsky’s guest post on Mashable suggests basic and advanced strategy tips for your business to make the most of your social media marketing efforts and achieving your goals.

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Does Your Website Inspire Trust In Your B2B…or Send Buyers Away? by Bill Gadless at B2B Web Strategy

Bill Gadless discusses how company websites have a short time frame to make a good first impression and what factors of a website can make a difference towards a positive reaction.

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