In the world of social media, the only constant is change. Each platform continues to update and add new features, and new channels appear on a regular basis. With this change comes opportunities for B2B marketing influencers to share their thought leadership in new ways and have their voices heard.
I tapped top B2B influencers and thought leaders to see where they are finding successes on some of the newer social channels. Come along and let’s explore the social media maze with them.
Finding Business in the Clubhouse
If you are jumping on trends, don’t miss getting an invite to the audio-only Clubhouse app. TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden noted “audio and voice will continue to be a trend for information discovery, consumption and engagement in 2021.”
One of the key reasons to be on Clubhouse is to gain followers, and not just in that app, but also on other channels. Industry veteran Dennis Yu documented his first day on the app with key insights into how he gained 650 followers in one day.
Stephanie Thum, founding principal at Practical CX has also successfully built connections through Clubhouse. “Participating on the Clubhouse app immediately increased my social and professional networks. Clubhouse is amazing for the give-and-take communication and information exchange,” Stephanie said.
Mark Schaefer, chief operating officer at BSquared Media agrees. “I am seeing a ton of B2B marketers on this platform simply to connect, exchange ideas, and network. I’ve made many new connections through conversations on Clubhouse that lead to new LinkedIn relationships.”
The invite-only nature of Clubhouse can make it feel limiting, however. Ivana Taylor, marketing strategist at DIY Marketing commented, “I’m looking forward to when more of my friends join so we can all be together.”
Success can be measured in many ways, but adding to the bottom line is at the top of the list. Brian Fanzo, digital futurist and professional speaker at iSocialFanz, says he’s gotten business from Clubhouse. “A brand heard me, and now I am doing a speaking gig for them.”
Clubhouse is also time consuming. In order to dedicate the time he needed to develop his presence on Clubhouse, Brian learned to lean more on his team and delegate more responsibilities.
“Clubhouse is an interesting place for connection and inspiration, but in the short-term pretty limited in terms of customer communications and content creation for the B2B professional,” Mark added, “But it is evolving rapidly, and it’s definitely worth exploration.”
Twitter Spaces Taking on the Challenge
Twitter rolled-out it’s new audio-only tool, too — Twitter Spaces. If you don’t have it yet, you are not alone, as it is only for iOS, but rolling out to Android soon. Android users can join and participate in Spaces on the Twitter app, they just can’t start one.
When describing the difference between Spaces and Clubhouse, Brian says, “Clubhouse is like a conference. Spaces is like a dinner party.” One big difference is in the reactions to your speech or discussion, as Twitter let’s you react either to everyone in the space personally, or to the whole group. Moderators can also tweet additional information via direct tweets to the space, to allow the group to gain additional context.
“These apps are a gateway drug to social storytelling,” Brain noted when hosting a Spaces room to discuss both apps.
If you follow the #TwitterSmarter weekly Twitter chat, you may have checked out the after party on Spaces with host and social media speaker and consultant Madalyn Skar. On her blog, Madalyn shared a Beta tester’s success story of how she increased her following by 769%, and how as a plus, they were all authentic followers. Twitter Spaces also offers another key advantage to the B2B marketer – branding. Spaces is a great place for you to establish your brand to a larger audience or in a one-to-one setting.
Boosting with Fleets on Twitter
The popularity of the story format has now come to both Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter’s version of stories can help to boost the presence of any thought leader. This newish tool is only visible on mobile, just like Spaces.
Recently, I noticed a tweet Stephanie posted for our client Mitel significantly outperformed many of her other posts. She commented, “Right?! That one Tweet went wild! I have a totally unsubstantiated theory that all of the posts got more impressions this time because of Twitter Fleets and Clubhouse.” She accomplished that by reposting the tweet in a Fleet.
Exploring Other Channels
A few months ago, I noticed that MeWe was making a resurgence. In musing about it, a B2B influencer asked me for more information, so I sent her an invite to go exploring with me. It is not currently a big B2B platform, but one to be aware of, along with Ello.
“In terms of new platforms, there’s no shortage of them; I’m even seeing some older platforms show up in my stream (such as Ello),” says Shonali Burke, president and CEO of Shonali Burke Consulting.
She continues, “For me, that points to two elements marketers really need to be thinking about: first, if you’re going to blast the same content out via different platforms via cross-publishing, you run the risk of generalizing your content to the point where it loses impact. How much attention are you actually paying to the specific audience for that platform? Aren’t you actually contributing to the noise, and actually reducing the potential to reach what *should* be a specific audience?”
“And the second follows from the first: *why* are you on that platform anyway? Are you on TikTok because it’s the shiny new toy du jour, or because you’re trying to reach Gen Z for very specific reasons? And does it make sense for *your* specific type of organization? What’s the strategy here?” she added.
Finding Success on Social Channels
B2B influencers are finding success on many of these new platforms, but the key is time and finding the right audience. As these channels grow and change, we as marketers should challenge ourselves to join influencers in the exploration of these new spaces.
What is your favorite new social channel and why? We would like to hear about your experience.
