There are a lot of successful MSP owners that have an engineering background. Configure that firewall? No problem. Set up that VLAN? Piece of cake. Manage social media marketing effectively for your MSP? Uhhhh…sounds like a challenge.
We’re hoping that this quick primer on social media will get your creative juices flowing with ideas on how to use it to build a brand and get new leads for your business.
Why is social media important?
There are a handful of reasons why social media is important. One of the biggest ones is that Google is now starting to consider social media signals as part of its SEO rankings. That means that a quality social media presence could result in more organic traffic to your site and more quality leads.
In addition, social media is a powerful branding tool. It’s a simple way to let the world know what you’re about as a company and the problems you solve. This is a great way to build a brand and connect with business owners that need your services.
What platforms?
There are specific social media platforms that are more relevant to business-to-business marketing, and therefore more effective. LinkedIn is the primary place where you should have a presence. Facebook, Google My Business, and Twitter are other platforms that you should be aware of and use as well.
LinkedIn is a great tool because you can use it to find the exact folks that you want to connect with. The right size of company, the right job title, and the right demographics. Then you can connect with them and grow your audience. Once connected, everything you post will populate in their feed. It’s a great way to get in front of your target audience.
How can you increase your fan following on social media?
The method for increasing your audience is a little different depending on the platform. One tactic that has worked well to grow an audience is to have a contest or giveaway that attracts attention. For example, you can win a pair of Apple Air Pods if you can answer this IT trivia question. You must connect or follow to have a chance to win.
Keep in mind that in social media content is king. You want to write things that engage your audience and invite conversation. Posts that go viral are typically where folks have strong feelings one way or another. Even a heated debate can grow your audience if done correctly. Put some thought into your outreach and how you promote your social media and you’ll be successful in growing that audience.
What can you write about and publish on your social channels?
A lot of folks seem to get stuck on what to say. MSPs have a lot of relevant topics that they can discuss. It might make sense to share something you learned recently at a conference. It might make sense to mention a cool new product or software that you’ve seen.
This is a great place to answer frequently asked questions. You could probably do a whole series of posts that were FAQs about the managed services business.
This is a great place to highlight a recent success or client case study. You do all that great work. Let the world know about it. If you have pictures of that amazing server room cleanup show them off.
Talk about gadgets. You probably love technology anyway. That’s why you got into this business. Be real. Be human. Post your passion. It may be a cool new drone you got or a network-connected coffee pot. Show off your cool gadgets.
Security! Cybersecurity is a huge hot topic right now, and there is constantly a new or evolving threat. Social media is a great place to make your clients aware of the newest phishing scheme, or cyber threat.
It is essential to have both an opinion and a personality on social media. Let your audience hear your voice, so write what you know. If you do that, you’ll likely create content that is engaging and fun. That will increase your audience and build your brand.
Yes, you need a content strategy for social media too.
Another thing to keep in mind is that social media can be an important piece of your overall content strategy. Did you write a killer blog article? Use social media to promote that post and increase the readership on your blog and traffic to your website. Did you do an awesome case study about a new client? Use social media to cross-promote.
One of the great uses of social media is to increase readership and engagement on those large pieces that you want your target audience to read.
Social media aggregation tools
Time is a finite resource. Many MSPs fail at social media marketing because they say they don’t have time to keep it up and be consistent. It is important to have a consistent cadence and presence on social media.
A huge time saver that can help you is a social media aggregation tool. Hootsuite is a good one to check out. This will save you a ton of time by allowing you to post across multiple social media platforms at once.
In addition, it will allow you to schedule your posts ahead of time. This is a game-changer. That means that you can sit down once a week or once a month and, in just a few minutes, plan out all the content you’re going to post across all your social media platforms. You can see the calendar for all platforms in one place. It’s also super handy if you are planning to use social media to promote other content that comes out on a certain date. Best of all, it’s a free tool.
Time to get on board?
If you’re not already on social media, you’re missing a valuable opportunity to grow both your business and your brand. We hope these tips have got you primed and ready to get posting.
Author Mike Herrington is vice president of sales and marketing at i.t.NOW, a full-service IT company for businesses in Utah. Guest blog courtesy of SuperOps.ai, an all-in-one MSP platform for IT service delivery. Read more SuperOps.ai guest blogs here.
