Connectivity, interaction, and proximity: are the main pillars of the digital age, which has transformed the way people communicate in recent years. It’s with that in mind
Connectivity, interaction, and proximity: are the main pillars of the digital age, which has transformed the way people communicate in recent years. It is with this in mind that we have developed this content, a definitive guide to social media for businesses.
In this sense, we will use our expertise to talk about the topic in a specific way, focusing on IT companies. Well, although this sector has closely followed the transformations of the digital age, not all companies have embraced the advantages of social networks.
Therefore, we have compiled the most important information and curiosities on the subject, explaining the concept, importance, strategies, and tips for you to implement in your operation, improving the visibility of your enterprise and polishing your reputation in the market. Without further ado, follow along!
The use of social networks for IT companies
First, it is important to realize the purpose of social media. While these platforms exist under the guise of a socializing medium, companies must see these services as opportunities to win and satisfy both new and existing customers.
In this way, social networks have become electronic business cards, in which people evaluate the quality of services, interact with the company, and have more direct and familiar contact with its brand.
After all, even though your own websites are important, it is on social networks that you find your audience in a closer relationship — since the interaction takes place in the same environment in which the consumer communicates with friends, colleagues, and family.
Therefore, building your digital presence is motivated by a very simple point: using these platforms as a means of capturing leads. Therefore, the greater your exposure and presence in front of the public, the greater the probability of conversion.
In addition, it is also important to consider competitiveness. Whatever solution you offer your customers, it is natural that there is a direct competitor in your region. It is at this point that you need to study and invest in marketing strategies for the IT company, seeking public perception and your competitor’s market share.
Especially because this is a reality in all segments of the economy. If you don’t invest in your brand’s visibility and presence, your competitor will invest in theirs — leaving your company in a vulnerable position. Therefore, the use of social networks today is not even a secret strategy, but a topic that requires consideration and investment.
The importance of this strategy
To some extent, social networks are free and widely available to any person or company with access to the internet. So, we came to an interesting conclusion: when everyone has access to the tool, it’s the specialization that makes the difference.
Social networks may seem simple, but they hide a sea of opportunity among their features. As an example, these platforms can be used to:
- Generate social proof — when the satisfaction of your consumers serves as a marketing argument in the testimonials left in Facebook reviews;
- Interact and provide support to potential customers with queries;
- Manage consumer satisfaction and brand reputation;
- Publish content interesting to your audience;
- Stimulate sales, contacts, or visits;
- Attract consumer attention;
- Study the profile of your audience;
- Create trust in the brand;
- Generate conversions;
- Capture leads.
In the end, it all matters! Each of these functions — in addition to many others not mentioned — plays a direct role in convincing the customer to close a deal with your company. That’s why social media has been ostensibly used during the consumer journey, winning those leads faster than any other tool.
In addition, it is also important to realize how flexible social media management is. Let’s say your company is still in its infancy, and you’re not likely to invest heavily in a team or consultancy specializing in marketing.
Still, you can rely on the flexibility of the digital age, hiring a professional on a freelance basis to manage your pages, ensuring consistency and quality in the publication of content — and constantly presenting the brand to your audience.
After all, by hiring a freelancer for this task, you avoid labor maintenance costs. In addition, it is worth remembering that this is the type of activity that can be carried out remotely, as in remote work. In other words, the important thing is that you realize the weight of social networks in the opinion of the consumer and select someone to dedicate themselves to this area.
The best social networks for IT companies
As with most services on the market, there is a wide variety of social networks for companies to develop their brand. However, it is interesting to know the participation of each one and understand how the resources they offer can contribute to your objective.
First, it is interesting to highlight the popularity factor. In Brazil, the most prominent platforms are YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn — exactly in that order. If we add the messengers, we will also have WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger on this list.
This is information taken from the Digital in 2019 survey. More specifically, you can check out the exclusive report on Brazil, diving into a sea of information, statistics, and important insights for the elaboration of marketing strategies.
Therefore, this is the moment when you must evaluate the range of functionalities of the networks, analyze the behavior and presence of your target audience, and choose the solution that is most compatible with your business plan model.
The particularities of each social network
Visual exposure, short communication, quick images, sales, and marketing. In a way, there is a network specialized in each of these areas. The better your strategy, the more your company will know how to position itself on these sites, taking advantage of what they offer and building a good digital reputation. Check it out!
In Brazil alone, the platform has more than 140 million active users ( pg. 34 ), delivering resources for publishing texts, videos, images, and even a marketplace.
However, as we talk about companies, it is interesting to deal with the average performance of a page on this network. Still using the Digital In report as a reference, we identified what Facebook offers:
- An unsponsored post tends to be seen by 8.5% of the number of users who like the page — on a page with 1000 likes, this post will reach 85 users;
- A paid post tends to be seen by 28% of all possible reach — in a post with 1000 possible views, that paid post will be seen by 280 users;
- Because of this difference in performance, 27% of Facebook pages sponsor their publications;
- Information on page 39.
Therefore, Facebook presents itself as a very powerful marketing machine, even if it considerably restricts the reach of its publications in an organic and free regime. For companies, the Facebook Business dashboard is used — a centralizer that organizes the management of your page, presenting performance reports, creating ad campaigns, and everything else you need.
In terms of ads, it is interesting to analyze the Facebook Ads page, which will teach you all the necessary steps for the elaboration and implementation of your strategy, with the steps:
- Goal selection — go to your website, fill in a quote, download an app, like your page, whatever;
- Audience restriction — filtering the reach of posts to only those users who meet your criteria in terms of age, city, gender, language, and interests;
- Position the ad — automating the firing of the post or restricting its action to Facebook feeds only;
- Set the budget — selecting between daily, weekly or monthly budget, preventing publications from overflowing a pre-configured box;
- Select a format — text, video, image, etc;
- order and manage campaign performance.
Then, we transition to a parent alternative to the previous network. After all, Instagram has been part of Facebook’s digital empire since its acquisition in mid-2012. It is even worth noting that because of this integration, the Facebook Ads panel offers integrated solutions for triggering ads on Instagram, controlling the advertising machine of that network.
But now, on to the descriptions! Instagram is not as versatile as the giant that bought it, as it is an almost exclusively mobile network — although it is possible to view profiles in a web browser. The differential of this platform is in its operation, which prioritizes the publication of photos and videos, although it gives space for the attachment of texts with the posts.
Statistically, it is also an interesting network. In Brazil, it accounts for 69 million users who can receive ads. However, it is interesting to note that this is a more laid-back platform, which implies a younger user base, where only 40% of users can be reached by advertising
Instagram does not present such detailed data on advertising performance, but it is still an extreme tool in maintaining personal and business marketing. Here, you need to assess whether the audience you want to reach is on that network.
Let’s say you operate in the IT and technical support segment for the general customer, without serving companies exclusively. In a way, all consumers need technical support on the hardware and software of their machines.
Because of this, Instagram proves to be a promising platform, allowing you to reach an audience in a very attractive way. Also, because it is such an aesthetic network, it can be interesting to count on the help of a graphic designer, to create publications that have a good visual identity.
In a humorous way, LinkedIn can be recognized as the Facebook of the business audience. In this network, publications take on a more sober, objective, and professional tone, serving precisely the purpose that this platform suggests.
Despite the explosive adhesion in more flexible networks, LinkedIn has a more restricted audience, accounting for 35 million Brazilian users who can be reached with ads, ie over 18 years old
To develop a consistent presence on LinkedIn, it is also important to invest in content production, especially textual. In this sense, the publications here tend to receive a more technical and corporate tone, avoiding posts with colors, art, titles, or bombastic proposals.
After all, this is the environment in which people look for solutions to leverage their own careers or company, and because of that, relaxation can sound wrong. Finally, it is worth noting that this network has a specific panel for companies that want to sponsor publications, LinkedIn Soluções de Marketing, where you can:
- Design and manage advertising campaigns;
- Boost publications;
- Segment your ad reach by profession, industry, segment, and company size;
- And like other ad solutions, it has a panel to manage strategies, control the budget and monitor the result of each approach.
With just over 8 million Brazilian users who can receive ads, Twitter is an environment that can be a bit curious for some companies. After all, the platform does not have such good distribution data, in addition to having a severe imbalance between the number of male and female profiles — 66% and 34% respectively, page 42.
However, this may be the type of information that has little impact on your strategy, but as we pointed out at the beginning of this article: investing in social networks requires dedication. So it’s natural that many companies are wary of spending time and money on a solution that might perform poorly.
Still, it’s always important to pay attention to your target audience. Let’s say you’re positioned in the IT industry as a tech support provider or gamer machine tech support. In this sense, it can be interesting to take advantage of the platform’s flexibility to your advantage, linking your brand with hashtags, memes, and content that bring you closer to your target audience.
However, if you operate in a more technical, reclusive, adult and business sector, Twitter may be a less effective strategy. Still, it’s worth seeing the platform and also getting to know its ad management panel, and Twitter Ads — with tools and solutions to increase your engagement, a number of followers, and conversions.
YouTube
Finally, we have the most popular video platform on the planet and the social network with the highest number of active users in Brazil. Naturally, we can attribute part of this success to the excellence with which Google maintains its services, creating an ecosystem of complementary solutions, such as search, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube itself.
In some ways, YouTube is the most specific network of them all, with a primary focus on publishing and serving videos. So, to embark on this platform, it is essential to accept that the production of content must be audiovisual, engaging the public in the easiest way to consume media: watching.
The site offers its own platform for publishing ads and YouTube Advertising. The interface is simple, with good usability, and the CPC and COM pricing — cost per click and thousand views — is fairly balanced, varying proportionally to demand and average tickets for each industry.
Like Facebook, YouTube is a network with extraordinary reach, drawing on much of Google’s expertise in ad targeting, and delivering your posts with surgical precision to the users you want them to watch.
The 6 steps to power networks and reach the right audience
Well, here we come to a natural dilemma for the entrepreneur who has realized the importance of networks but doesn’t know where to start. Rest assured, as we have prepared a quick step-by-step guide for you to assimilate your position on this journey and move forward. Look!
1. Choose your networks
Basically, everything we’ve talked about up to this point. Analyze the database of your old customers, understand this consumer and see which tools are compatible with your operation. It’s okay if you leave out two or three, the important thing is that you start exposing your brand to the world.
2. Assign a team
Within your company, you already have a role, which can be either technical or managerial — or both! Therefore, understand the importance of this strategy as a separate department, hiring or outsourcing a consultancy on the subject, which can be done in the following ways:
- Initial: hiring freelancers to manage the pages, create and publish content;
- Intermediary: hiring a permanent marketing manager for your company and outsourcing content production;
- Advanced: investing in a consultancy specializing in marketing, professionalizing the production of content, managing leads and monitoring the performance of your brand.
3. Produce content
It is not enough to open the account, but the logo on the avatar and the address in the registration. Just like a good book, your page needs content. This product can be outsourced or built with the expertise and collaboration of your own employees, it all depends on the approach you choose.
4. Invest in advertising
Over time, you hit a natural growth bottleneck and will inevitably have to pay to grow. But rest assured, although this is a realistic and direct message, the investments are not gigantic, but proportional to the operation, delivering an honest cost-benefit ratio.
5. Track the results
As the financial market motto suggests, past performance does not guarantee future returns. With advertising, things are a little similar, as the goals of campaigns involve people and their behaviors, which can change towards new brands, trends, or solutions. So it’s always good to be aware of using the right keywords and settings for who you want to reach.
6. Refine your strategies
The mistake is nothing more than an opportunity for correction – even if mistakes are bitter when accompanied by financial losses. But again, your budget is always pre-stipulated, allowing you to study and familiarize yourself with the market, learning the best times and topics to engage with your audience.
Top 5 tips for creating relevant content that drives engagement
Right! Now that you know the networks and the steps to position yourself in each of them, it’s time to structure the main strategy in the maintenance of these pages, the production of content. Check out our tips!
1. Study your consumer
You need to know your target audience, with characteristics such as age, education, and in some cases, profession. This information equips your company with the basics to develop communication that is compatible with those you want to reach.
2. Look for topics that interest this audience
Literally: that interests your audience! No matter how technical your team is, you should produce content that interests those who hire your team’s competence, not those who want to learn about those skills.
Therefore, depending on your target audience, it may be interesting to produce content such as:
- Post with the X best antiviruses of the moment;
- Video with the X best graphics cards of the year;
- Infographic with the X best security practices of the enterprise network ;
- Finally, something that arouses the curiosity of those who should read.
3. Choose formats consistent with the networks in which they will be published
As we have emphasized throughout this article, each network has its specialties, and although they have gained resources over the years, they continue to be better in their original purposes:
- YouTube — videos of any length;
- Instagram — images and short videos;
- Twitter — direct and objective texts with up to 280 characters;
- LinkedIn — technical, managerial, academic, journalistic, and economic articles about your industry;
- Facebook — everything, although images and short videos have greater appeal on the platform.
4. Study about sales funnel
The funnel is one of the most elementary strategies in marketing concepts. Basically, it stratifies potential customers, describing the consumer journey in three steps:
- The tops, where many leads are captured;
- The medium, in which leads with no interest in your product or content are discarded;
- At the bottom, where middle leads are mature and used to your brand, be ready to hire your service.
5. Study the biggest reference in your segment
Good old industrial espionage, isn’t it? Obviously, we say this in a comic tone, almost like in a cartoon. The objective here is to seek absolute inspiration in reference to your sector. To do so, we are not talking about looking at your biggest, regional competitor.
None of that, to take his place in the market, you need to learn from the greatest. See the content they are producing. Examine the marketing strategy of that referral that has a huge box for it. Then reproduce the original content following the same guidelines learned from them.
Top 5 mistakes companies make when using social media
It is not just in the management of managed IT services that there are major mistakes. In the maintenance of networks, these mistakes are also possible, requiring attention and flexibility to avoid these problems. Take a look!
1. Ignore the weight of visual content
Conventional wisdom is often surgical in explaining situations. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why you should prioritize visual content, even if on an intermittent basis, hiring a professional to create art and posts with a good aesthetic touch.
2. Ignore the frequency of posts
If the content is important, consistency is even more so. The goal is not to publish a wonderful article and disappear, but to “cheat it”, continually stamping your customer’s feed with that hot post every Thursday — or whatever date or period is suitable.
3. Ignore the target audience study
Selling highly technical solutions with shallow language is difficult. Sell simple solutions with technical language too. Therefore, it is essential that you align your product and your communication profile with your customers, simple as that.
4. Ignore campaign tracking
Observing campaigns is an opportunity for learning, to correct expenses in real-time with a strategy that will not take off. 20 years ago it was inconceivable that any small or medium Brazilian entrepreneur would have so much power over his message. So why would you waste this chance now?
5. Ignore the effectiveness of advertising
This can be an ironic mistake, especially for those in the tech industry. Digital advertising is becoming an absolute reality in the market, with efficiency and adherence that advertising companies never imagined reaching.
After all, it makes no sense to offer technological solutions if your company’s marketing continues to reproduce 20th-century solutions — radio, newspaper, and television. Coincidentally, all errors can be summarized as acts of negligence, in which the entrepreneur did not perceive the opportunity to update himself and ended up losing the market with it.
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