Social Media Marketing For Consultants: Would It Kill You To Be Social?
Ahhh… social media marketing for consultants. If the term social media makes you want to run and hide, you are not alone. Sometimes social media can feel like total quicksand. You open up your Twitter or Facebook feed, and before you even get a chance to start reading, you’re met with a barrage of mostly mundane updates. Most of which you really, really don’t care about. Or perhaps you’ve opted out of social media altogether, to avoid that very fear?
I’ve been blogging about key components of successful lead generating websites lately, including social proof, content marketing and lead magnets. On top of that, social media marketing cannot be ignored. You’ve likely been told that you need to get on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. and create a presence for your brand in order to compete effectively in today’s digital landscape. But how will you ever find the time to build a social-media campaign on top of everything else you need to do?
I’m here to tell you that for most of my consulting business clients, much of it is frankly not worth the bother. There, I said it. Mark Zuckerberg, you heard me. For most small and medium sized consulting businesses in B2B in North America, there are other digital marketing tools that will give you much better bang for your buck, like focusing on your website and doing email marketing.
However, like all rules, there are exceptions. In my experience, this is where social media marketing for consultants makes sense:
You need to be there. For B2B (Business to business) marketing, it is the standout social media front runner. It’s the number one place to do your networking online. Posting your valuable content to LinkedIn is always a smart marketing strategy, especially if it sends traffic back to your website, where your Lead Magnet lives (and if you don’t know what a Lead Magnet is, you missed the previous lesson in this course). Also, LinkedIn is the ONLY online tool that provides access to its decision-maker database at the free membership level, through its advanced search function. I can send you detailed instructions on how to do this, just send me an email and I will forward them to you.
Google Plus
Not surprisingly, Google favours Google Plus. Your site will rank better on Google search if you have a Google Plus page, even a dead simple one. Just make sure it links to your website, and that your website links back to it.
Website Links
For search engine ranking purposes, it serves you well to have social media links on your website. So be sure to link to the ones you have, and then don’t sweat the rest.
CAVEAT: Please don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. Social Media Marketing is a total game changer in many, many markets, and there are certainly examples of consulting businesses generating legitimate leads on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and more. However, in my experience, my clients are having more success generating leads online using other tools they are more comfortable with.