In my last article Social Media Cheat Sheet for B2B Marketing I introduced Drew McLellan’s “Social Media Landscape” tool for CMOs and made a bold statement (no-pun-intended): “B2B Social Media Marketing Is Useless Without a Business Blog.“ You may be wondering, what is the value of B2B Blogging and why is B2B Social Media Marketing Useless Without a Business Blog?
A blog is company’s Hub or “home-base” for ALL Social Media Marketing Activity. B2B Companies should use their blog as a way to create remarkable content that can be found on search engines, in the blogosphere, and shared on social media networks.
The Value of B2B Blogging
- Establish yourself and your company as a thought leader in your industry
- Educate others in your industry with your blog
- Interact with the visitors to your blog in the comments section
- Encourage visitors to your blog to comment on your blog posts/articles
- Encourage visitors to subscribe to your RSS Feed via email or reader, enabling them to receive your new fresh content (blog posts/articles) immediately.
- Turn visitors into LEADS by adding compelling “Calls To Action” on each blog post/article
- Expand your Reach by commenting on other industry related blogs and linking back to your blog (in a Non-Spammy way. See my comment policy if you want to learn about Comment Spam).
- Off-Page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Value: Build up high quality inbound links from authoritative websites. Huh? Why should you care about inbound links? Inbound links are the currency of the internet. The quantity and quality of inbound links are very important with respect to Getting Found online in Search Engines. High quality websites are far more likely to link to an educational, inspirational, or well thought out blog article, than a static web page on your website.
- On-Page SEO Value: Each blog article is an opportunity to focus on a keyword phrase that your target audience will type into search engines when doing research. If you can rank on Google’s 1st page in the organic listings (AKA Search Engine Results Pages or SERPS) for relevant keyword phrases, you will give yourself more opportunities to get found by your target audience. Go To Google and do a Keyword Search for “Inbound Marketing.” You will notice my employer’s B2B Blog ranks 1st and 2nd in Google’s organic listings.
- Analyze your blog articles to understand which articles are generating the most comments, reactions and leads. Analyzing the marketing effectiveness of your blog should inspire future content creation efforts and blog articles.
Social Media Marketing is Useless Without a B2B Blog
- Since your blog is your home base for content creation, you want to give visitors the opportunity to share your remarkable content with their social media networks.
- Social Media Networks offer ways to connect with family, friends, colleagues, businesses, prospects, and like-minded people. The best way to leverage social media for b2b business is to interact with others, answer questions, be respectful and act as if you were meeting these people in real life.
- Credibility: When meeting prospects online, answering questions or offering advice, a blog adds another layer of credibility to your advice.
What are your thougts on B2B Blogging as it relates to Social Media Marketing? Do you think B2B Companies can have a success generating leads without having a blog?