From third-party review sites to R dit and Quora, company blogs and social m ia networks, decision makers have no shortage of material to draw on. Business leaders get this. What some may overlook, though — or at least struggle to act on — is the importance of engaging buyers on a person-to-person basis.
If you doubt the power of human engagement, think about the time you lost a contract because a key person left the company. Beyond emails, sales calls, and lunch invites, how do you engage in a human way? One answer is social m ia: Link In, Twitter, Facebook, and any other platform your buyers spend time on.
Nearly 85% of CEOs and VPs say they use social m ia to help make purchasing decisions. On the other hand, 93% of B2B CMOs describe social m ia as “critical to their marketing strategy.” They are using social channels to build awareness and earn trust, provide exceptional service and experiences, and gather business intelligence. In doing so, they help drive relationships that attract and retain customers.
That’s just the social chatter you can see. Imagine what’s happening outside of. Slack, Teams, Discord, WhatsApp, email, text, and other private messaging channels.
Over 77% of share trading happens “in the dark.” I’ll share more about how to best influence dark social channels in a future Forbes article. But I want to introduce a simple concept that requires nuanc execution:
How to influence the dark society — and beyond — one decision maker at a time
I often see companies invest huge budgets into resource bahrain phone number library libraries that they host on their own platforms. However, no one will visit your site to conduct research unless you have already earn their trust. The challenge most companies face is building trust early on, before researchers make a decision that leads them down a specific path.
How do you do that? As a company, engage with as many people as possible to increase. The chances of your brand being includ in more conversations—whether those conversations are online or offline, “in the dark” or in public forums.
The marketing team alone can’t do it. Nor can the executives. You ne to turn your entire workforce into an inform , personable engagement machine to create a stacking effect.
This requires:
ucate teams on when, where and how to engage in relevant social discussions.
Provide people with the content and tone whatsapp channels: how to use them effectively guidance they ne to deliver real value.
Establish clear guardrails so people know what’s okay and what’s not (you don’t want to encourage employees to flock to social only to be unhappy with what’s said on those channels).
Develop strategies for measuring results and adb directory collecting and sharing success stories.
It is and always will be human.
The communication style may have chang (shifts, BRCs), but the core reasons buyers continue to work together are the same: they like and trust the people they do business with. They feel an emotional connection to your company and brand beyond that person – your market reputation and strong brand validate their instincts.