Sharing Content on Social Media Sites

Getting eyes on your content can be rough. Social media giants like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn offer an overwhelming number of content sharing solutions to their users. Whether you’re just dipping your toes into social media, or have been tweeting, blogging, and networking for years, these tips can help you reach out to your target audience more easily.

Facebook

Let’s start with Facebook! Facebook’s page feature enables businesses to share pictures, videos, and news with people who have “liked” their page. The page feature allows the administrator of the page to view analytics such as the demographic, weekly views, and audience interaction. Have you had any success in the past using Facebook’s analytics? I’m interested to gather more examples!

One example I really like is from Threadless.  The company uses their page to promote new products, inform customers about promotions, and respond to customer feedback. Here is an example of Facebook insights:

Facebook Insights

Facebook also offers “groups” for sharing content and collaborating. Members of a group can share content to the group wall so every member can see it. You can also invite whole groups to events, and share documents. When you update a document, Facebook gives you the option to record what you have changed in the update. Group administrators may use privacy settings to restrict access to viewing or posting to a given group. Also, a secret group can’t be searched for and members must request permission to join.

Ways to Leverage a Group

Use as a company intranet.

Plan group events.

Communicate and share content with customers.

Here’s an example of leveraging a group:

Facebook Groups

Twitter

Now let’s move onto Twitter. This channel is often used for customer support, crowdsourcing, creating 2-way dialogues, building brand awareness, or public relations. To illustrate one of these communication types, let’s walk through this Nike example. Nike made a separate twitter account for customer service; customers tweet to this handle and Nike answers their questions. Making a twitter handle devoted to customer service provides a simple and effective solution for customer service.

Companies also leverage Twitter for B2B transactions on an ongoing basis. It’s really one of the best ways to use Twitter for business! A study showed that 11% of Twitter users who saw a tweet from a B2B tech brand visited their site and filled out a sign up form. Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee live tweeted pictures of a bi-lateral knee replacement to show off their new orthopedics technology. Aurora Health Care saw a 15% conversion from leads to sales after live tweeting the surgery.

And Twitter’s “list” feature allows a user to keep and share a set of other users and their tweets. Many businesses find that this allows them to track potential customers and clients for B2B transactions. For this type of business, the list feature has many advantages. Here’s a snapshot of a list:

Twitter List

Twitter List B2B Advantages

View specifics for your industry by putting followers in a list.

Target groups of industry experts with questions by tweeting at a list.

People that are interested in you can subscribe to your list and increase your audience.

LinkedIn

Another great social media outlet for sharing content is LinkedIn. This channel allows you to share your insights with other members within your network, throughout LinkedIn, or even with select members.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for networking and interacting with members of the site. With a few simple clicks you can communicate with business and people from all over the world. This makes a great B2B business tool. By using the LinkedIn “groups” feature you can create your own groups or join other groups and collaborate. My favorite example of this is when a lawyer created a group on employment law issues for HR directors and managers. One year later the group had more then 1,000 members! Once the group was establish the law firm hosted two HR question times in their offices. The majority of attendees were not clients. The firm used this opportunity to build relationships with the attendees and eventually turn them into clients.

LinkedIn offers targeted status updates for business pages. You can choose to share a status update with the public, employee’s only, specific employees, or by industry, seniority, and geography. Targeting specific audiences can really help the way in which you share content.

Benefits of Sharing Content With Specific Audiences

Avoiding cluttering the feeds of uninterested users.

Targeting people who are knowledgeable about the content.

Testing content with friends and followers before releasing it to the public.

Choosing the right media and medium is critical. Sharing the right content with the right users can make your social media efforts much more effective. If you have a great example of content sharing via social media, let us know in the comments and share!