Did you know that 75% of B2B buyers now use LinkedIn when doing product research before making buying decisions? In our interconnected world, organic MSP social media marketing is an increasingly important strategy to build your brand awareness, promote your services and engage clients and prospects alike.
Yet getting started can seem like a daunting task if you have no or little social media presence at the moment. We’re here to help you out, because investing in social media marketing will be worth the effort. In this month’s blog, we talk all things MSP social media marketing and how to get started.
We cover:
- Why Social Media Marketing Matters for MSPs
- Which Kind of Content Works on Which Platform?
- What Social Media Marketing Tools Do I Need?
- What Are Some Organic MSP Social Media Marketing Best Practices?
- Kicking Off Your MSP Social Media Marketing Journey
Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!
Why Social Media Marketing Matters for MSPs
Social media marketing should be an integral part of your overall inbound marketing strategy if you’re serious about your growth efforts. In the digital age, organic social media is one of the best tools to generate and nurture leads and build your brand image. Its benefits are vast:
- Building awareness: Thanks to hashtags and platform algorithms, organic MSP social media marketing is one of the best ways to bolster your brand image, find people who are interested in what you’re talking about and grow your audience.
- Engage with your audience: Social media is one of the best strategies to easily engage your audience. Whether you’re sharing insightful articles or posting company updates, your audience can like, comment and even share your content, allowing you to have conversations and build brand engagement without any major effort involved on your audience’s side.
- Gain visibility with prospects: Organic social media is also a great way to gain visibility with an audience you might not even be aware of. Platforms such as LinkedIn are used by prospects when researching solutions to existing pain points, and the better you are at building your social media presence the more likely they are to stumble upon your posts and engage with your brand.
Which Kind of Content Works on Which Platform?
As part of your wider content marketing strategy, it’s necessary to know which kind of content works best for which platform. For business purposes, we’ll narrow it down to a few platforms that make the most sense for MSP social media marketing.
- Facebook: You might think that Facebook is an unlikely entry on this list, but you’d be surprised. Facebook is a great tool to find and join MSP peer groups, share company updates, news and most of all: to network.
- Twitter: Twitter can be a handy tool to share short, sharp facts or news about industry hot topics and as well as sharing your own options about current events and industry news.
- Instagram: Instagram is a good platform for sharing the more fun side of your business. You can give your followers a behind the scenes look into your organisation and highlight your employees and team culture.
- LinkedIn: If you only want to focus on one social media platform, LinkedIn should be your choice. It’s the number one social media platform for B2B marketing, and research shows that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn alone. It’s the best place to share thought-leadership content, long-form articles, company updates as well as content showcasing your service and solutions offering.
What Social Media Marketing Tools Do I Need for My MSP?
There are many tools available that can help you streamline your social media marketing for your MSP. Buffer and Hootsuite are just a couple of tools that allow you to easily create and publish content.
The right marketing tools can also help you understand what your audience cares about. Conduct keyword research using the likes of Semrush, Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs and don’t forget to analyse the performance of your posts. This can give you better insight into what content works well with your audience and how to improve your content calendar to maximise engagement.
However, many wider marketing automation tools, like HubSpot and The Growth Machine already include social tools, so determining your social media marketing tools should be part of your wider marketing tech stack planning.
What Are Some Organic MSP Social Media Marketing Best Practices?
The possibilities of social media marketing for MSPs are endless, so it’s necessary to align your strategy based on your goals, capacity and target audience. While there is no one-for-all approach, there are some best practices you can follow.
Align your goals:
As previously mentioned, your MSP social media marketing strategy should be a part of an overall marketing strategy. That’s why it’s crucial to determine beforehand what your social media goals are and how these align to your wider business and marketing strategies.
Determine your audience:
There are over 720 million members on LinkedIn, so while the world is your oyster, you’re unlikely to be very successful if you target every single one of them. The key is to know your target audience and cater to their specific pain points and challenges.
Create a content calendar:
Planning is key, so once you know your target audience, you can create a 6 or 12-month content calendar based on the content you want to share with them. This way you can easily build on previous posts, create a coherent content stack and repurpose already created content.
Variety is key:
People like variety, so your MSP social media marketing content should be a colourful mix of various content types. From long-form articles to company updates and short opinions on current industry trends, your audience will be more engaged with your content if you’re hitting different interest points.
Don’t create content for content’s sake:
Social media is a great place to create authentic relationships, so if your content is solely targeted at upping your number of posts, your audience will see straight through it.
You can share posts about accomplishments you’re proud of, but don’t brag. Share insightful articles but don’t be condescending. To most of us, this goes without saying, but the written word can be taken out of context quickly, so think about how your words will be perceived before hitting ‘share’, and make sure your content is adding value to your followers.
Ask questions:
Speaking of creating relationships, social media is the best place to ask questions. Are you planning to post an article about specific pain points to establish the most prevalent challenges of your audience? Ask! This is a great way to show authenticity and curiosity, start a conversation and get great insights into your target audience.
Be consistent:
Like with most things in life, consistency is what will allow you to see results. And we don’t mean you have to share 3 posts daily (we would actually advocate against sharing 3 posts daily) but, creating a regular and consistent content schedule will help you keep momentum going and establishing an active presence.
Kicking Off Your MSP Social Media Marketing Journey
Social media is an integral part of your MSP marketing strategy. It allows you to have genuine conversations with your target audience, build brand awareness in a light and engaging way and show both your clients and prospects the human side of your business.
If you’re new to marketing and are just getting started, make sure to include organic MSP social media marketing when creating your marketing plan.
This might seem a lot if you haven’t done it before, but fret not! At Marketopia, we have a wealth of experience in helping our clients build a solid marketing foundation and hit their growth goals through effective and targeted strategies.
Building your MSP social media marketing strategy can be time-consuming and ineffective if not done correctly.
So, if you feel overwhelmed by the thought of managing your own social media efforts, reach out to us. Our MSP marketing experts are happy to help you build towards your goals with a growth assessment. Book your free consultation below!
