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Markelle Harden Administrator

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mharden@avistapr.com

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Technology B2B companies are finally stepping up to the social media plate, but many of them are still striking out when it comes to measurable, profitable interactions with their target audience.

While working with a variety of enterprise technology vendors, we’ve identified the most common social media sins that stand in the way of social media success.

1. Ignoring the SEO/Social Relationship

Lines of communication between the Social Media Managers and the SEO team should be open. There is a goldmine of information to be shared when it comes to keyword targets and high-converting landing pages.

For example, a Social Media Manager may check BuzzSumo for trending industry news and topics. To capitalize on that topic to drive traffic and interactions, the social media team scrambles to create content and get it posted to the website. In theory, that sounds simple, but in reality, it isn’t simple at all. A copywriter must be hired or found internally, the draft must be approved by the VP of marketing or the gatekeeper, images must be created or purchased, and finally the development team can upload the content. Best case scenario? A week has passed. The topic is no longer trending, and now your brand is riding the coat tails of news that was hot LAST week.

When the Social Media Manager has direct access to the SEO team members and the data, they don’t need to get lost in the content-creation merry-go-round. They can log into the Analytics tool, identify high converting landing pages or high-traffic blog posts that are related to that topic, and move the initiative forward. Sharing SEO information with the Social Media team saves valuable time and resources, and allows the Social team to drive new traffic to the website.

Opening the line of communication between Social and SEO will allow technology brands to gain new traffic and conversions without creating more work for everyone. The data exists; the teams should work together to capitalize on it.

2. Ignoring the Value of Employee Advocacy

The key to growing a loyal and engaged social media following is convincing the target audience to trust your brand. What better way to encourage trust than to use connections that already exist?

Employees already have networks of people that they’re connected to, and their networks are likely to be interested in similar industries and topics. Asking them to engage and share brand messaging is easy, and engagement rates will soar with minimal effort.

How can a brand monitor and reward employee engagement? There are many options available, but failing to use these tools is a social media sin that will cost your brand in the long run.

Our favorite social media tools:

• • Everyone Social simplifies the process and instantly connects your employees to your brand on social.
  • Sprout Social offers powerful social media analytics, enabling brands to monitor team engagement.
  • TribeBoost can turn your Twitter account into an industry connection tool.
  • Buffer offers a fast, easy setup to streamline posting. Most accounts can be set up in minutes.

3. No Hashtag Strategy

Everyone knows what a hashtag is, but not everyone knows how to use them. Technology brands tend to shy away from using them, as overkill is a big social media faux pas.

Brands should never sprinkle hashtags into a post without proper research. There IS a method to hashtag madness, and it’s a social media sin not to use the abundance of free tools available.

• • Google+ Explore Tool You must be logged into Google for this one to work, but it provides a goldmine of information. Simply plug in a hashtag that seems relevant, and it will generate a list of related hashtags. It may also come back with a big fat zero, which is your signal to go back to the drawing board.
  • RiteTag You don’t need a paid account to plug your hashtag into their search tools, and gain access to even more suggestions.