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Try this One-Week Experiment to Grow Engagement on Social by 200%

By   ·  2 minute read

There are two things every startup wants out of their marketing: 

  • Speed
  • Results

When budget and bandwidth comes at a premium, we need to take as many shots as possible and give ourselves the best chance of hitting a bullseye each time.

So today I’m sharing a playbook that I’ve executed at zero cost in less than a week to generate bumper returns on social media in B2B. 

And it’s based on employee advocacy.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’m a massive proponent of employee-led marketing and social selling. 

There is just no better way in the early days of a company to raise awareness and build marketing momentum than leveraging the collective social network of your organisation.

Employees will – on average – be connected to 10x the number of people than the brand handle. It stands to reason that this is multiples of magnitude bigger in the early days of a company when awareness is lowest. 

Meanwhile, 76% of individuals say that they’re more likely to trust content shared by individuals over content shared by brands.

Fact is that people buy from people – not a logo. And it doesn’t require a huge lift to get started. 

Step 1:

Pick your subject matter. You need something your buyers care about and that you as a vendor have a position on. Think the emergence of a new industry trend and its impact on the sector at large – always a good place to start. 

Step 2: 

Pick your experts. These folk must feel comfortable forming an opinion around the topic, talking to camera and have a network that touches your target buyer – even tangentially. Bonus points if they are already active on social. 

Step 3: 

Run an interview. Record a 15-minute Zoom call where the chosen colleagues answer questions about your subject matter. Aim for 3-5 questions each. Don’t worry about retakes – you’ll cut the footage into clips. 

Step 4: 

Prepare the assets. Each question will be its own video clip to be shared across the individuals profile. Outsource the production on Upwork for speed – include a logo lockup and subtitles at a minimum. Prepare social copy for each post that includes tagging the brand. 

Step 5: 

Distribute the assets. Share the content with your experts to publish across their own social networks and encourage each to re-share the others. Give it 2-3 days and then amplify the employee posts across the brand account. 

Using this simple experiment, I have: 

  • Generated upwards of 200% more engagement on posts compared to when the same content is simply shared across corporate channels.
  • Expanded the collective reach of my brand’s network and netted our first 1000 followers.
  • Created a vested interest with colleagues to assist in creating content that lifts some of the burden off of marketing’s shoulders.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of operating what I call a ‘checklist strategy’ – or simply running the same boring playbook as 99.5% of their competitors because it’s what they think they should do. 

But with a little thought and understanding of the changing dynamics of buyer behaviour, there are some easy wins to be had by early-stage B2B companies on social media.

Takeaway

Building credibility with prospective customers is one of marketing’s most important jobs. Create plays in each of the four quadrants of credibility – self, press, client and work – and you’ll be doing better than 95% of your competitors.