Over the past two decades, one of the most dynamic developments related to digital media has been the rise of social media. Social platforms have become marketing hulks, offering businesses important data about their customers and a generally free way to reach them. It has become the ultimate equalizer, giving a voice and platform to anyone willing to engage. Social media can be an influential tool to spread the word about your work and develop your relationship with your audience. Developing a robust social media strategy is critical for building and growing an online audience. While managing social media can be more involved than optimizing SEO, it can potentially pay bigger benefits.
Many big technology companies like Intel, Oracle, and Cisco have leveraged social media to create amazing marketing masterpieces. These companies are the foundation of developing a social media excellence with a combination of skills: content development, amplification, creativity, consistency, and engagement. Thanks to Social media marketing, these companies have drastically revolutionized the marketing and branding stratospheres as well as the way in which technology companies function. So what does social media marketing mean? What kind of social media strategy can help technology companies benefit? How can technology companies use this strategy to their advantage?
Game – Set – Match: Technology Companies
No, we are not shifting to tennis! But yes it’s more of a winning feeling if tech companies can adopt and execute social media strategy in the right way. Just like tech organizations have some sort of business plan, every technology company needs to have some sort of social media strategy. The framework of developing a social media strategy consists of various functions. If you’re wondering how to identify and execute a social media strategy that can positively impact your business outcomes, look no further. We’ve outlined key points below
Discover your audience
If your company has just joined hands with social media, you should start looking for an audience. Generally, the strategy for finding an audience is looking for groups of people with similar interests to keywords that make sense for your company. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn have plenty of such groups, which helps you communicate & connect with the people of similar interests, make business contacts and ultimately spread a word about your services. For example, if you’re company is a cloud computing services provider, you might look at groups like Cloud computing, Information technology etc.
Spread the Word
When it’s time to get the word out, your organization must communicate clearly what’s it’s all about. Here are some of the questions you need to consider before jumping the gun.
- What are the features of your product or service?
- How will it benefit the end-consumer?
- How is it different from your direct competitors?
Quite often, technology companies fail to understand that social media can be one of the biggest tools for marketing their product or service. Social media is a medium where you may encounter people who are not in your industry or have never seen your product, especially if it’s a new invention. If your company can find a solution to answer these questions on social media, you will get a much higher brand awareness, as people are more likely to share information that they understand.
Cross-promote
Once your organization has posted some sort of content on social media platform, it’s always useful to cross-promote each account or profile. For example, place a link to your companies Facebook fan page and Twitter account on the company website, place a link to the company blog on the company Twitter page, and import the company blog to the Facebook fan page. That way, when someone finds your company on one medium, they can also find it easily on the other mediums.
Recognize your existing assets
Technology companies always have more assets than it realizes. For example, if your company does not have time to create content, maybe it could instead repurpose content. From your blog section, take one of the old posts and fit it into 140 character tips that can be posted on Twitter. If you don’t have a blog post section, maybe you have an employee whose job is to follow trends in the industry, who is constantly reading the latest links or news, you could publish those on Twitter or create a blog post quickly. Think creatively, you can always find something you already have and repurpose it for social media usage.
Social networking is a bird’s eye view of your industry’s digital footprint and a simple, free way to keep tabs on what your competitors are doing. Why not take a step forward to view what other brands are doing in similar industries. You can start to pick up on the tactics that work, contests work exceptionally well on Instagram while RT and follow sprees tend to produce quick results on Twitter. If you work with skilled digital marketers in establishing your brand across the social spectrum, you will witness first-hand benefits of social media marketing. These days, social media waits for no one. If you’re late for the party, you’ll probably be covered by all the noise and you might not be able to get your voice across. Social media is a strategy worth spending on. Technology companies who are strategic and engaged should start reaping the largest benefits.
