Social media marketing strategy for an ERP company?

[IM_Learner]

Hello Everybody,

We are an ERP company and want to get into social media marketing. We have decided to use Google+ over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Any ideas what we can do besides regular updates and getting our clients link to us?

Regards

[RobertFisher]

Shailendra,

Given you are an ERP provider, I would suggest the following in terms of making a social media choice: Google+ is a good decision but you would be remiss to not also utilize Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, probably in that order. I say LinkedIn because that is where your prospective client likely is and that person is likely to Tweet and Follow, and YouTube can be a very effective way to increase your visibility. Like with everything, what you put into all of these is what matters. Your question seems to be: What do I need to do to make this effort pay off for your firm? My suggestion would be that if you are simply going to start with +1, Linked, Tweet, YouTube icons that people utilize that is the bare beginnings.

Next, you have to create a reason for people to do all the connecting and talking, adding your firm into their circles, follows, etc.

A great example of this occurred recently for us when one of our copywriters  +Lauren Cohrs who is still in college wrote a clever post on how Facebook is better than Google+. As the result of all of the back and forth and others picking it up and commenting and arguing, etc. we saw a huge bump in traffic. Note that the traffic brought us zero in the way of conversions, prospects, etc. What I found highly interesting was our average visits were around 100 per day; the spike was to 1360 over three days with the peak day being 828 and after that we are now averaging around 125 per day (that is a 25% increase in traffic).

Will that always happen? No. But if it happens even semi occasionally it will benefit us and it will benefit you. I look forward to seeing you and your firm out there.

All the best,

Robert

[IM_Learner]

Thanks for the prompt reply Robert! We have the social media icons across the pages of the website along with the corresponding social media pages and YouTube channels. Other than this, what else can we do?

Because ERP software does not appeal to mass market and within ERP domain we are serving only process manufacturers like Food, beverage, pharma etc. It's like niche within niche.

We can start interacting with our existing clients via social media channels, this is one thing we can do but how to market our products and services on social media channels in a manner that can even attract the attention of totally irrelevant and unrelated people. I want people to view our campaigns and make it viral and create a perception that even an ERP company can create engaging campaigns across the channels. As of now, my target is brand building and not conversion.

Regards

[RobertFisher]

Sorry to take so long to get back with you, long and busy day.

"but how to market our products and services on social media channels in a manner that can even attract the attention of totally irrelevant and unrelated people. I want people to view our campaigns and make it viral and create a perception that even an ERP company can create engaging campaigns across the channels."

IMO, when you say the above, you are to a great degree on the right path. At the same time think about how many people want something to be "viral." If there were magic to "viral" I would go into that business exclusively and be a billionaire in a year or two. Viral does not happen by wanting it; it happens by continuously creating content people share and comment on and that you engage with back and forth. You might try a hundred or more pieces of content and get varying levels of response and engagement, and not have any of it bring you even a thousand visitors. But, over time it will grow your traffic.

Except for certain situations or businesses, the idea of approaching social media for immediate conversions does not work to any great degree. The approach of using it for engagement does.

Hope that helps,

Robert

[ReferralCandy]

If you're using Google+ to improve client engagement, you might want to consider using Hangouts On Air to interact with your clients. Possibilities to use Hangouts include customer service, webinars, conferences, software trainings, etc. Many companies (e.g. Dell, Cadbury, etc) have started to use Hangouts and met with success due to its easy-to-use nature and ability to share other content while video conferencing.

Changing to another channel for your marketing or customer service efforts may not be easy at the start, but in the long term, using Hangouts can reduce cost and generate more engagement.

Here's a link that might help you get started on Hangouts: http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2013/06/24/heres-help-to-get-your-business-started-with-google-hangouts-on-air/

Hope that helps!

[RobertFisher]

Referral Candy,

That is a great suggestion you gave to Shailendra, re Google Hangouts, we are using it and I feel as if we started late even though many or still not using it.

Good work,

Thanks,

[IM_Learner]

Thanks Robert! I had similar things in my mind but I was not sure. Your reply made everything clear.

Thanks Referral Candy! The link you shared is really good.

Regards