As uncertainty continues for the global MICE industry and the ability for MICE destinations, products and services to engage face to face with prospective clients has been diminished, the importance of social media platforms as a promotional tool continues to gather pace. Social media will continue well past COVID as an important tool to complement traditional sales and marketing strategies.
Marlieke Kemp-Janssen gave an insightful presentation on how to build an effective social media presence for the B2B market. Some of the key take-outs from the session included:
Social media should play a part of an organisations marketing strategy and should align with their overall company objectives which may include growing your brand awareness or driving leads and sales.
Social media alone will not necessarily generate lead conversion but can effectively extend your audience reach and create an emotional connection with your product or service.
An effective social media strategy aligns its messaging with the audience persona, providing solutions to their challenges and needs.
To build audience reach start with uploading your email database to social media and then leverage opportunities provided by social media groups, using industry hashtags and consider social media ads.
Choose social media platforms that best reach your target audience and consider their functionality. For example, Instagram is about visualisation; Twitter for customer service and news feeds; LinkedIn for developing business networks; YouTube as a search engine and video platform; WeChat for the everything related to the Chinese market and Tiktok for creative applications and attention grabbers.
A multi-channel strategy will help you increase ROI, conversions, improve connections and lead generation.
For social media content make sure you place important information first, play with emotions, tell a story where possible, leverage possible hashtags, add eye-catching creatives and a call to action.
Maintain a regular social media presence to build brand awareness, engage with your audience and drive traffic to your website.
Event Host: IPIM (Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute).
The session was facilitated by Mike Williams, Senior Consultant, GainingEdge
Presented by Marlieke Kemp-Janssen, Founder and Managing Director, Aureum Hospitality Advisers
