Archive for the "Social Media" Category
Supply Chain Leaders: Do These 4 Things with Your Social Media
Make the most of your supply chain leaders’ social media accounts by following these steps.
I’ve written many times before about the importance of supply chain leaders being on social media as the face of their brands. Social media presents a huge opportunity for executives to use their relative industry celebrity to be an extension of their organizations.
So you are ready to commit to a more active social media presence (or you’re going to be ghost-posting for your executive). Where do you begin?
We’ve come up with 4 tips for supply chain leaders to making the most of their presence on social media.
4 tips for supply chain leaders on social media
1) Find the right platform (or platforms) for you.
The first thing to consider is your target audience. If you’re looking to reach a young demographic, for example, Snapchat is probably the way to go, as 45% of its users are under the age of 24. Likewise, if your brand would be well-served by live video (hint: it probably will!), Facebook Live and Instagram Stories offer great possibilities.
Next, think about your personal voice, and what type of content you are likely to be posting. Thought leadership can often best be established on LinkedIn. But that doesn’t mean that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube aren’t also good avenues to present your voice to the world. Pick the platforms that you feel speak most to your audience and best serve your brand.
2) Use your creative side.
Supply chain and logistics leadership requires a tremendous amount of creativity and innovation. Let these qualities shine through in your social media presence! You have the tools to spark more engagement, increase follower count, and make your posts go viral.
This means using your unique voice to be a storyteller, engage your audience, and create a face for your brand. If you need some inspiration, check out these 7 Twitter accounts.
3) Create space for conversation.
Too many would-be social media mavens fall into the trap of posting the kind of content that doesn’t invite interaction. Instead, be a conversation-starter.
First, take a look at your audience and what kind of interactions they have online. You can scan the pages of other leaders in your niche as a reference point.
You can generate interaction and engagement by showing gratitude, listening to your audience, handling queries, posting thought-provoking content, and posing questions in your posts.
4) Avoid controversy.
This might seem obvious, but there’s a fine line to walk between posting or re-posting thought-provoking content and becoming an inadvertently controversial figure.
Keep in mind that, in the public platforms that are social media, all your moves will be under constant scrutiny from your fans, followers, and people in their networks. This means that while cultivating a personal voice, it’s important to maintain a level of professionalism. And stay away from posting anything that can make you a lightning rod for controversy!
Where do you go to follow supply chain leaders on social media?
Related posts:
- 5 Must-Read Books for Supply Chain Leaders
- Top 10 Leadership Posts of 2017
- 5 Social Media Tips for Supply Chain Executives
Archive for the "Social Media" Category
Infographic: The B2B Buyer’s Journey
Today’s B2B buyer’s journey involves more internet research and more social media use.
Technology has completely changed the B2B buyer’s journey. The vast amount of information available on the internet has afforded buyers a level of self-sufficiency that renders traditional sales models ineffective. Marketers must leverage the latest trends and technologies to boost their content marketing efforts and turn leads into sales.
According to Demand Gen Report’s 2017 B2B Buyer’s Survey, respondents cited an increasing reliance on peer reviews as a critical influence in the buying journey. Additionally, personalization is increasingly important: 66% of respondents said it’s “very important” that websites “speak directly to the needs of their industry and expertise.”
But in these changing times, how do companies keep up with new technologies and growing trends? Marketers now, more than ever, need to incorporate new types of content (video, live-streaming, infographics, etc.), utilize social media, and update content marketing practices to align with company sales goals.
The B2B buyer’s journey gives valuable insight into how B2B buyers are finding vendors, engaging with them, and — ultimately — deciding to work with one. Supply chain and logistics businesses need to take the time to understand the buyer’s journey, so they know where they need to invest their time and money in order to get buyers’ attention.
Infographic: the B2B buyer’s journey
B2B buyers are looking for information and are using that information to make buying decisions. Companies need to be using social media. Companies need to be creating and curating quality content. It is equally important, however, for companies to realize that content marketing doesn’t shorten the buying process; rather it changes it.
Related posts:
- 3 Questions to Ensure your Content Marketing Strategy Is Sales-Focused
- How to Generate Revenue with Content for the Supply Chain
- Content Marketing Trends for 2018 Supply Chain & Logistics Marketers Need to Know
Archive for the "Social Media" Category
Video: Marketing Automation for the Supply Chain Marketer
Supply chain marketers can use marketing automation to drive efficiency and be more successful in earning and converting leads.
Marketing automation is the process of using software to complete repetitive marketing tasks designed to nurture sales leads, personalize marketing messages and content, and — in the process — save marketers’ time and effort. Supply chain marketers are using marketing automation to streamline processes and increase qualified leads.
Marketers can scale their processes so they can reach more people, with less effort.
Buyers are increasingly demanding a more personalized experience along the buyer’s journey, which means marketers are working overtime to produce more targeted content. That’s where marketing automation comes in. By using automated messaging, marketers are able to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content that helps convert prospects into customers and customers into loyal customers.
Jumping into marketing automation can be overwhelming. Utilizing the right software and knowing where to implement automation into your marketing processes will help nurture leads and get you back to more pressing tasks.
Here are five ways to get started using marketing automation for the supply chain.
Video: marketing automation for supply chain marketers
Don’t worry about being redundant.
We are all too familiar with the batch-and-blast approach many companies use in their email marketing efforts. And, oftentimes, those emails end up in someone’s spam folder.
We also have so many clients that worry they will become redundant by implementing marketing automation. But that’s not true.
Instead, marketing automation can help you provide a more personalized experience for your leads (no batch-and-blast). This will increase the chances that they’ll buy. But it won’t take up more of your time. In fact, it will give you more time to focus on tasks that can’t be automated, like content creation.
Related posts:
- Increase Leads by 451% through Marketing Automation
- Content Marketing Trends for 2018 Supply Chain & Logistics Marketers Need to Know
- Emerging Trends in Automation: What it Means to Supply Chains
Archive for the "Social Media" Category
An Example of Successful Social Media in Supply Chain Management
Adidas and FIFA have found great success in using social media in supply chain management.
Sometimes, a success story can be a powerful motivator. FIFA and Adidas have been extremely successful in using social media in supply chain management. Here’s how it works for these organizations and why your business should consider it.
FIFA and Adidas
These two brands are a match made in heaven. In fact, their relationship spans the 48 years since 1970, when Adidas began supplying the official match ball for all FIFA World Cup matches. And clearly it’s been working for both brands, as they have recently extended their partnership until 2030.
With a global supply chain consisting of more than 1,000 independent factories around the world, Adidas is harnessing the power of social media as it relates to the supply chain.
How they used social media in supply chain management
In 2014, the brand launched the #allin campaign on Twitter, letting users follow the progress of the official 2014 World Cup soccer ball (nicknamed the Brazuca). The ball even had its own Twitter handle. Videos showed the Brazuca outfitted with cameras and sent on a journey around the world.
As you can imagine, this creative marketing was social media gold. Adidas was able to leverage its partnership with the FIFA World Cup and engage its audience in a meaningful and lasting way.
According to Waterloo blogger Jaime Salinas, “Adidas is using social media to improve their organization’s supply chain management globally by creating transparency, increased visibility, communications and quality control that leads to reduced operational and labor costs.”
For example, the Adidas SMS Worker Hotline allows direct communication with factory workers, bridging the gap that can exist between management and workers. The system allows the workers to have anonymity, ensures transparency in tracking complaints. It also allows correction efforts to happen in real time.
The takeaway
So what can your business learn from this duo’s successes with social media in supply chain management?
“Social media can improve [an] organization’s supplying chain management,” writes Salinas. “It can create more visibility, improve communication, increase control, and reduce operational and labor costs.” This creates a more efficient and steady supply chain, which in turn increases customer satisfaction.
Salinas concludes, “The ripple effect of using social media to improve supply chain management can expand outwardly across virtually internal and external organizations, which is great for business.”
Related posts:
- Top 5 Trends to Know to Compete with Amazon’s Supply Chain
- Supply Chain Putting the Star in Starbucks
- 5 Podcasts for Supply Chain and Logistics Professionals
Archive for the "Social Media" Category
10 Ways to Grow Brand Awareness Quickly
If you’re looking to increase your brand awareness, and quickly, here are 10 tricks to accelerate your efforts.
If you took Psychology 101 in school (or even if you didn’t), you know that people are more likely to buy from brand names they’re familiar with than those they don’t know. This goes for purchasing things like medicine, and for procuring components or parts as part of the supply chain.
That’s why so many of our clients come to us looking to build brand awareness as one of their main goals. They want to customers to know about them — and sooner rather than later.
Particularly if your business is new, you’re trying to change an existing market perception, or you have to make your marketing dollars work fast to meet a boss’ deadline, you need to grow brand awareness quickly. We’ve got some ideas to accelerate your efforts.
10 tricks to grow brand awareness quickly
1) Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is an on-trend platform that delivers targeted content to B2B buyers and builds brand awareness with potential customers. This feature consists of sequences of content that a user posts over a 24-hour period. Besides photos, Stories can include video and Boomerangs, seconds-long motion clips that play forwards and backwards.
2) Partner with other brands
Creating a promotional partnership with a brand that is ancillary to your role in the supply chain can be a huge boost to your brand awareness, if you choose wisely in your partnership. You benefit from its image and reputation and build collegiality.
3) Start content partnerships
Again, this is all about leveraging other people’s audiences to spread the word about your brand. Reach out to the blogs or media sites your target buyers frequent to see if you can author a post for them. Invite them to guest author on your blog. Basically, create two-way content partnerships where you will ensure that your brand’s name will come across the screens of target buyers.
4) Make sharing easy
This is a great way to let your successes go to work for you. Make it easy for your audience and followers to share your content with their networks. Give them sharing options for email, social media — heck, put share links on anything and everything. Social media is a powerful tool in building your brand. Don’t underuse it.
5) Hold social media contests
Everybody loves to win a contest. Use your social media platforms to create contests in which followers submit a photo or video, and let other users vote for their favorites. Contestants will share the link with their networks, and your brand awareness grows exponentially.
6) Try paid social advertising
Facebook and Twitter ads are relatively cheap, and both platforms do a great job of making sure your content gets to your target audience. You can set metrics and customize your preferences for a targeted audience in a variety of ways. It’s one of the most effective ways to grow brand awareness quickly with a very particular audience, though you have to pay to play.
7) Infographics
These are eye-catching and colorful ways to display interesting data and statistics, and are often overlooked for the content powerhouses they are. They’re prime candidates to be shared far and wide on social media.
8) Personality
Having a memorable personality for your brand isn’t just for B2C companies. While you don’t need to hire the Old Spice Guy, letting your content have a voice and perspective is important. Buyers want to know they’re dealing with a human being.
9) Podcasts
Starting your own industry podcast, perhaps interviewing your own executives and other industry experts, is a great way to build your brand and simultaneously develop relationships with your supply chain peers.
10) Become a resource
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Your most important asset is your knowledge and expertise, not your products and services. Content marketing is all about being a trusted resource for your audience. Ditch the blatant sales pitch in your content and think about how you can help your target buyers instead.
How do you grow brand awareness quickly?
Related posts:
- 4 Metrics to Measure the Impact of Content Marketing on Brand Awareness
- Want More Leads? Focus on Brand Awareness.
- Can You Measure Brand Awareness? Yes!
Archive for the "Social Media" Category
Facebook/Cambridge Analytica Scandal Furthers Distrust, Twitter Cracks Down on AI Usage, and More Social Media News
Also in social media news March 2018: Snapchat allows branded content ads; Facebook is testing Messenger Broadcasts; and Twitter tests prioritizing news tweets.
With the increasing popularity of automation tools and chatbot technology, social media platforms are working to regulate how brands are reaching their target audiences. Trying to ensure that users aren’t being inundated with spam posts or fake news, Twitter, Facebook and many others are coming out with stricter rules and regulations. This could mean extra work for smaller brands trying to keep up with the latest changes to make sure their content is getting as much reach as possible.
But there are real benefits to using automation tools, especially when it comes to social media management. Facebook, for example, is testing a new Messenger Broadcast that would help smaller businesses, which don’t already utilize chatbots, blast messages to users that have started a conversation with their Pages. These small but helpful updates will allow companies to have a greater reach without extra work for their marketers.
Here’s your social media news for March 2018.
Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal furthers distrust
Facebook issued yet another apology to its users after news broke that a quiz app developed by a Cambridge University researcher leaked personal data from about 50 million people in 2014. Political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which was affiliated with President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, allegedly used the data to create psychological profiles to influence voters. Users responded with a #deleteFacebook campaign, in which those angered by Facebook’s mishandling of the data are encouraging widespread removal of all Facebook-associated apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp. Fronetics is staying on top of this situation and will continue to provide social media recommendations in light of such reports.
Facebook ends Explore Feed
Adam Mosseri, head of Facebook News Feed, announced plans to discontinue the Explore Feed on the website in early March. Facebook introduced Explore Feed in October as, essentially, a second News Feed that acted as a dedicated place for Pages. User feedback showed that “Explore isn’t an effective way for people to discover new content on Facebook,” and actually made it harder for users in test areas to access important information.
Twitter cracks down on automation and bot usage
Twitter released a new set of rules and regulations that prohibits developers from using Twitter automation and bot programs to simultaneously post identical content from multiple accounts. It also bans users from performing actions — such as likes, retweets, or scheduling tweets — from multiple accounts. “One of the most common spam violations we see is the use of multiple accounts and the Twitter developer platform to attempt to artificially amplify or inflate the prominence of certain Tweets,” writes Yoel Roth on Twitter’s blog.
YouTube adds new live-streaming tools and features
YouTube introduced a new chat replay feature that unfolds exactly as it did when the video was streaming live. Users can now watch videos that originally aired live and follow the conversations that took place alongside of the video, even after the live stream is over. This new feature supports YouTube’s mission to add “ways to watch live videos and interact with your community in real time.”
Facebook tests messenger broadcasts
Facebook is testing a new messaging tool directed at small businesses that haven’t jumped on the chatbot bandwagon. TechCrunch reports that Messenger Broadcasts allow companies to blast a message to anyone who has already started a conversation with them in Messenger. The new tool is currently being tested among a small percentage of Pages in the U.S., Mexico, and Thailand. Facebook hopes to turn the messaging tool into a paid product for small businesses and limit the number of messages that can be broadcast to cut down on spam.
Twitter test makes news the first thing users see in the timeline
Twitter recently confirmed a test of a news reel that would put news highlights at the top of users’ feeds. According to BuzzFeed, Twitter will select news items to appear in boxes at the top of the timeline. Twitter says the test is designed to “highlight the platform’s bent towards current happenings” while making news easier to find. This test comes in the aftermath of Facebook also trying to prioritize news events over Pages, while also fighting increasing fake news.
Snapchat allows branded content ads
Snapchat will now allow publishers to share branded content among the articles and videos they post. “Starting now Discover publishers are allowed to distribute branded content within the Snap Ads that run in their Publisher Stories,” a Snapchat spokesman said in an emailed statement. Snapchat Discover generated more than $100 million in ad revenue for its media partners in 2017, and this latest update will hope to boost even more ad sales.
Related posts:
- Facebook Boosts Local News, Twitter Launches Sponsored Moments, and More Social Media News
- Facebook Introduces Explore Feed, Twitter Adds Self-Serving Advertising, and More Social Media News
- YouTube is Helping with Branding, LinkedIn is Creating Geofilters for Your Corporate Events, Facebook is Giving Out Background Details, and More Social Media News
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