If you’re overwhelmed by the new wave of “tips and tricks” for influencing people on social media that seem to pop up every day, you’re not alone. But, for professional business services, it’s important to reach the right people and social media can be a huge help.
Instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks, it pays to be strategic with your social media efforts. When you find what works for you, you’ll see that social media provides a less expensive way to increase your global reach and brand visibility.
Here are some key ways you can use social media to find more clients and drive more sales.
1. Share Good Content
The first step in creating an engaging social media presence is sharing content your audience is interested in. While it can be tempting to just push out your own content in a self-promotional haze,
The reasons why consumers follow brands on social media varies, but reports show that 40% want to be entertained, 34% want to be educated, and 32% want to be inspired by product and company news.
HKS Architects share timely, relevant content that isn’t theirs with their audience on Twitter.
How to share good content:
- Create a library of external content that you think will be valuable to your audience
- Schedule external content around your own content to create a healthy mix of promotional updates and educational ones
- Repost relevant content and add your own spin on it, to instill your brand’s personality
2. Share Customer Stories
Your customers and clients are the most important people in your business. Instead of simply listing the benefits of your services to potential new customers, use social media to show the results your services are getting for other clients.
The easiest way to do this is through customer success stories or client-created content, like photos, testimonials, videos, and reviews.
You can take it one step further and create a vault of case studies to draw from when sharing on social media. Then, pick out key stats and results to populate your social feeds with them.
Concentrix shares client testimonials across their social media channels.
How to share customer stories:
- Interview your best customers, or ask for a testimonial when a project has ended
- Create case studies about your best customers
- Share snippets of these case studies on social media, including stats, testimonials, and the end results
3. Direct Prospects to Your Site
Social media is an integral part of the sales funnel for service providers. As one of the most popular ways for generating traffic, it’s a no-brainer to use it to direct potential clients to your website.
90% of people buy from the brands they follow on social media, but to do that, you have to direct them to your service pages and offers. As well as posting links to blog posts, share links to your service pages, prices, About Us page, and other places prospects might find value.
Equinix adds CTAs to their social media posts to direct followers to their site.
How to direct prospects to your site:
- Regularly share links to pages on your site that aren’t just blog posts
- Add links to landing pages and service pages in your social media bios
- Use CTAs on social media posts to gently nudge your followers to your site
4. Go Behind the Scenes
Consumers connect best with brands they trust and have the same values as, and 76% say they are more likely to buy from a brand they feel connected with. Social media is the perfect place to show off your personality and humanize your brand through snapshot stories, raw videos, and behind-the-scenes footage.
There are plenty of features available on social platforms today that let you connect with your followers in-the-moment. Consider going Live on Instagram or Facebook, sharing 24-hour Stories to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and creating unpolished visuals.
Deloitte regularly shares unpolished Instagram Stories dedicated to getting to know the company.
How to go behind-the-scenes:
- Walk through a day in the life at your business
- Introduce key team members
- Host a Q&A with the founder
- Take unedited, unfiltered snapshots throughout the working week and share them on your Stories
5. Engage With Clients
Social media is inherently a social place to be. People expect you to interact and engage, and it’s the perfect place to get to know your prospects on a personal level.
According to research, brands that initiate and participate in relevant conversations make 44% of consumers feel more connected. What’s more, people expect a same-day response from brands on social media when they have a question or a query.
Ernst & Young make a habit of responding to their followers’ comments.
How to engage with clients:
- Set aside time to respond to comments on your social posts
- Search your brand name on social media and get involved in existing conversations
- Encourage prospects to connect with you on social media
6. Run Social Ads
Reaching more prospects is always a struggle for professional services – where do you find them? How do you make that initial connection? The laser-focused targeting options of social advertising make it possible to reach only the kind of people you want to reach.
How to run social ads:
- Identify who you want to target
- Determine the platform you want to run ads on (this will be where your audience is already hanging out)
- Create visuals for your ads that are eye-catching and on-brand
- Make sure you send people who click through to a relevant landing page where they can find out more
Add Social Media to Your Marketing Mix
Social media can be a great resource for professional service providers. It’s the perfect place to connect with new prospects, engage with existing clients, and increase brand visibility in a global context.
To get it right, make sure you’re maintaining conversations with the right people, sharing good content, and directing people to your website.
