1. Audience

Now, more than ever, you must have a keen understanding of who you want to reach with your marketing.

The majority of non-traditional social media channels have niche audiences. To get the most out of them, you must be able to align who you want to reach (your buyer personas) with the key demographics of the particular social channel you want to use.

Typically, the people that use these channels are younger. But as more of the younger generation (dare I say, millennials) move into management and decision-making roles, you’ll want to find ways to connect with them that won’t come across so traditional and overdone.

2. Mobile

You must optimize your online presence for mobile.

As of 2013, 71% of people use their mobile device to access some form of social media. And to further that statistic, most non-traditional social channels are optimized to only be used on a mobile device, i.e. SnapChat and Instagram apps.

Having a mobile-friendly website strategy is imperative if you want to use these channels to ultimately drive conversions, leads, and customer retention. This could include investing in responsive design for your website or making links easier to click on mobile devices.

3. Strategy

You have to be smart about non-traditional social media’s placement in your overall marketing strategy.

Ultimately, how these non-traditional channels are used is going to be different from business to business. Some companies will have non-traditional social tactics as a major part of their strategies, while others may use these tactics as supportive techniques.

What makes the most sense for a majority of B2B marketers is to use these tactics as a part of a larger strategy. Maybe you can use non-traditional social channels to serve a very specific purpose like product demos or hosting live webinars.

However you decide to incorporate non-traditional social into your strategy, be sure that it makes sense and sends the right message to the right people. There’s a comprehensive list of how you can use these channels towards the end of this page.

4. Relationships

Non-traditional social media is about relationship nurturing. You need to create or update your marketing and sales strategy to reflect this.

Relationship nurturing is a key factor in marketing and sales, especially in the B2B realm. If you don’t have a strategy that aims to generate leads and then build a relationship with them in an interesting and sincere way, you’re missing out on great potential.

Non-traditional social media is all about relationship nurturing. The nature of these channels allows you to engage with your buyer personas in a highly personable way that also adds value.

Taking an example from earlier in this post, doing partial product demos or webinars via non-traditional social will educate your buyer personas in a non-confrontational way - giving them just enough information to want to contact you for their needs. And if you’re successful, you’ll be able to build and nurture relationships with them that will eventually lead to lifelong customers. 

Periscope	Snapchat	Instagram	Pinterest
29% of users are women 81% of users are ages 16-34 Most popular in USA, Turkey, Brazil	31% of users are under the age of 34 70% of users are female 30% of US Millennials use snapchat regularly	68% of users are women 80% of users reside in the US 28% of users are ages 18-29 Used by 49% of brands	81% of users are female 50% of users make $50k or greater a year 60% of users reside in the US 93% of users say they use Pinterest to plan their purchases and 87% say that they made a purchase because of Pinterest 5% of all referral traffic to websites is because of Pinterest 70% of users are under 50 years old

Personas

As mentioned above, building out personas is an important 1st step in incorporating these channels into your overall strategy. 

Creating personas is a great way to:

• Guide targeted messaging on these channels. This will increase the chances of your target audience converting on your content.
• Establish a lead qualifying process and increase quality leads.

Check out a sample persona below. If you want more information on getting started with personas, click here or the image!

(Click here or the image above for the downloadable version)

What are your thoughts on using non-traditional social media in B2B marketing efforts?

At Pinckney, we write about social media a lot because it’s a proven method to drive traffic and conversions.

If you’re really interested in how to leverage not only social media, but all aspects of an inbound campaign for your business, check out our Inbound Marketing Success Guide below. 

The businesses we work with count on our specialization in building full-funnel campaigns that generate leads and revenue. Our firm is focused on building lasting, business-focused partnerships with the brands we serve that are built on long-term strategy, not short-sighted tactics. Clients tell us that they appreciate how we focus on their business and driving results with smart marketing, even on a tight budget.

Check us out at the Pinckney Marketing website to learn more.