You may have been forgiven for turning your nose up at social media marketing a decade ago.
Back then, many social media websites we use today weren’t even on the map, sort of speak.
Those that there were in place were only popular for a matter of a few years, and failed to stand the test of time.
Today, however, many of the social media websites that we use have continued to gain popularity year on year.
This means that it’s no longer possible to ignore the benefits that come from investing in your social media marketing techniques, especially in the IT industry, where keeping up to date with technological and online advances is incredibly important.
If you’re still weary about whether social media is beneficial, Digital Authority Partners reports that social media platforms now govern an average of 134 minutes of a person’s time every day.
This means that your company has ample opportunities to market yourselves successfully on social media if you’re using the right methods.
Unfortunately, there are lots of IT companies who struggle to keep up with the latest trends.
If you feel like you may have fallen into this trap and want to change your ways, here is a list of social media marketing techniques you need to implement to take your IT company to the next level.
Use Memes To Attract Millennial (And Younger) Audiences
The use of memes to market companies on social media is something that has become increasingly popular in recent years.
One of the main reasons this is used is to better connect with younger audiences, who are generally less susceptible to traditional marketing methods on social media.
By embracing the latest trends, you are also increasing the potential traffic to your adverts, as people will often tag friends in funny meme-related content, increasing your organic viewership without having to spend additional money to do so.
Unfortunately, the IT industry as a whole is yet to embrace this, instead relying on more traditional marketing methods.
This can make you seem out of touch and detached from younger audiences, potentially limiting your customer pool and ability to raise the bar of success.
Use Informal, Casual Language And Emoji’s
On social media, people like to be able to relate to the content that they engage with, which is incredibly difficult to do if you are constantly using formal language.
The truth is, people like to get to know the person behind the social media account, or in your case, the company.
By setting the tone with more casual language and emoji’s, you are promoting a fun brand who knows how social media works, which will potentially entice more people to engage with you.
It also makes you more approachable, as people will not be intimidated or feel scared to interact with the brand because you’re using language that may be better suited to LinkedIn and other business websites.
Interact With Customers Regularly
One thing lots of people will look for when choosing the IT company they want to hire is whether they have good customer service.
For lots of companies, this service starts on social media, where most people will go to air their grievances, ask for advice, or sing your praises.
This is why it’s important to dedicate a certain amount of time to replying to these messages, making your customers feel valued, and future customers realise that you do care about them.
As you can imagine, negative comments about companies are much more popular than positive ones, so make sure you are taking the time to give both sides your full attention and customer service.
As you can imagine, this does take up a lot of time, which is why many industry experts suggest you have a dedicated section of your customer service to do this for you.
Team Up With Influencers
Influencers are extremely powerful on social media, and in general, when it comes to increasing conversion rates from advertisements.
We recommend finding influencers within your niche to advertise your products and/or services for a predetermined fee.
Most companies in 2019 will use Instagram, but Facebook can also be an effective tool, without almost double the monthly users as Instagram.
Not only will this increase sales, but it will also create greater brand awareness, which you could use as part of your sales funnel.
Increase Your Time On Social Media
When it comes to B2B marketing, you need to make sure that people have as much access to your brand as possible.
A great way of doing this is to make sure that your company is regularly posting on the social media websites you are using.
This is because your message only stays relevant for a small period of time on social media, meaning you must post regularly to make sure that your audience have optimum opportunities to engage with you.
One thing a lot of companies are doing nowadays is creating a social media marketing plan, or hiring a freelance social media manager to handle their content for them.
This can be a great way of doing it as it ensures you are posting regularly, and posting the right stuff, without taking time away from other aspects of your business.
Be Unique
Like mentioned above, you only have a short amount of time to have your message recognized by others before it becomes irrelevant on social media.
To make that message be seen for longer, you need to make sure that people are engaging with what you’re saying, and the easiest way to do that is to be unique.
Especially in the IT industry, where lots of companies are competing for the same clients, you need to make sure that your social media profiles stand out.
By providing the evidence that you are different from other companies, you are more likely to attract leads and recommendations from others, increasing conversion rates and overall sales.
Create Paid Social Media Campaigns
A lot of IT companies will rely on traditional digital marketing methods, like google advertising, to bring in the majority of their traffic.
This comes from the belief that investing in social media campaigns is a waste of money and leads to less valuable conversions, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
In fact, Tech Masai reports that Facebook ads have an average conversion rate of 9.21%. This is a lot compared to the 1.4% conversion rate nearly 40% of marketers experience.
A good thing about investing in social media advertising is that they provide immediate results that are easy to measure and repeat the success of.
This makes it easy to understand which marketing tactics you need to focus more on with your social media accounts in general, as well as identifying what aspects of social media are a complete waste of your time and need changing to be more effective.
Summary
The truth is, social media is extremely important for marketing your IT company, where most of your target audience will be frequenting these sites.
As you can see from the methods we’ve suggested, however, it’s not necessarily difficult to implement these strategies.
In fact, the challenges faced when making your marketing strategy social media friendly is only as difficult as you make it.
If you’re struggling to come up with a comprehensive social media marketing strategy there is, like we suggested, ways around it by hiring someone who can help you to succeed.
