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Most marketers are still using social media tools for in-platform branding, which translates to lost opportunity. According to the latest survey by MarketingSherpa, 78 percent of respondents are participating on company branded or managed social networks, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, with another 63 percent using microblogging tools (e.g., Twitter). Content sharing, blogging and social media news releases also receive a considerable amount of attention, at 63 percent, 59 percent and 48 percent of respondents, respectively.

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The next time you take a look at the analytics for your corporate blog, go deeper than the dashboard. Down in the weeds, you’ll find information directly applicable to your sales efforts. Mine this data, and communicate it to your sales team: they will have a powerful new tool for getting inside their targets’ heads.

There are many ways you can use your corporate blog’s analytics to drive revenue gains across your company. Here are my five favorites:

1. Watch who’s watching: Don’t (just) look at volume. Instead, take a peek at the company names. You can use this to find out who in your target market is interested in your company. Also, take a look at the posts they are reading. This will provide insight into the specific products or services they are exploring.

2. Check for repeat visits: Do some companies keep coming back? This speaks to level of interest and commitment to your brand, not to mention specific business issues or products or services. Frequency and regularity translate to higher potential for entry into the sales cycle and conversion.

3. Dig into keywords: When a visitor uses a search engine to come to your corporate blog, the keywords used can be telling. Keep an eye open for those that indicate a business pain point or particular product or service.

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Unless you’ve spent a lot of time sifting through the minutiae of social media marketing, you’d probably think that having a story retweeted dozens of times will translate to a hefty increase in pageviews and exposure for your corporate blog. Well, as you’re planning your social media marketing strategy – as with any marketing effort – it pays to think about the people you’re actually targeting.

I’ve always been stunned by the disparity between the action a story gets on Twitter and the actual amount of blog traffic to which it translates. It seems that one really doesn’t have much to do with the other, and a recent study shows why.

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Back when Twitter had only 3 million users or so, you could market by developing a rich, high-value following, engaging in conversations with your target market and … well … not really marketing. Now that Twitter has topped 125 million users, using the microblogging service as a newsfeed has become far more effective, even though it ostensibly shuns much of what makes social media “social.” Yet, marketers have adapted to this evolution in Twitter, continuing to find ways to use the service to drive traffic to blogs and websites in the hope of luring prospects into their sales cycle.

And just when you were getting comfortable, it’s all about to change again.

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As you get ready to jump into the social media marketing fray, the draw of just getting started can be powerful. The potential associated with this form of marketing is high, and the pressure to claim your space on the most visible social networks is intense. It’s also fraught with risk, especially if you leap before you look.

Want to make your corporate blog – and Facebook page and Twitter presence – a success? Here are four crucial objectives to focus on:

1. Publishing regularly: this may seem counter-intuitive, as it deals with your company, not your market. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find that both sides of the equation are affected. Without regular content, your market has no reason to engage. Further, it’s challenging to create interesting and useful content regularly, so you need to make that a clear goal.

Objective to set: frequency of publication

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Either you’ve been tasked with starting your company’s blog, or you just think it’s a good idea. Now what?

Unless you’ve already dipped a toe in the blogging pond, the entire experience can seem overwhelming. Since any corporate marketing initiative comes with a lead time – consisting of everything from design and development to legal approvals – the best first step is to start a blog of your own. As your company is going through the necessary machinations, you can take the time to get a feel for what blogging is.

This may seem like a big step, but it’s actually rather tame. Don’t spend too much time planning (or worrying about what you’ll write). Just head over to WordPress, register and look around.

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B2B social media marketers are in the early and middle stages of their efforts, according to a study by MarketingSherpa. The survey finds that, almost independent of social media marketing category, trial programs and transitions (to strategic roles) are most common, with relatively few companies using these tools strategically.

Overall, 33 percent of companies are in the Trial Phase, with 40 percent in the Transition Phase. While this constitutes an overwhelming majority, the fact that 23 percent of social media marketers have moved into the Strategic Phase is actually promising. Businesses are moving into this advanced state – and they are using social media to drive returns.

[Source: MarketingSherpa]

Organic growth translates to missed opportunities. When you launch your corporate blog, don’t sit back and wait for readers to come to you … and then wait some more for them to step into your sales cycle. Instead, seek them out, and use your blog as a first step in lead qualification.

Combine direct and social media marketing, and you’ll gain a powerful demand generation tool.

Blogs do have a tendency to be discovered (i.e., to gain readers). Whether it’s through searches, a link on your website, a PR effort or tweets and status updates, traffic happens … it just happens slowly. And since high-value readers are likely to be only a small portion of your organic traffic, you could be waiting quite a bit before your social media marketing effort generates any leads. Take a proactive approach, and this changes drastically and quickly.

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If you think you’re losing readers on your marketing blog, it might not be because of your content. In fact, they just might be forgetting about you, and that’s a problem you can fix.

Think about the media that bombards your clients — or anybody — every day. There are television shows, blogs, newspapers and corporate marketing materials. It’s tough to work your way into the “mandatory reading” rotation, especially since you’re using your blog to market (and may not be publishing daily).

To maximize your visibility, you need to remind your core readers that they like your content — usually, that’s all it is. Read our recent guest post on SocialTimes to learn how you can keep bringing your readers back for more!

[Source: SocialTimes]

“Large” creeps its way into just about every social media marketing endeavor. Companies want legions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. And a blog that isn’t highly trafficked and packed with comments almost feels neglected.

Resist the temptation to believe that big is beautiful, and refocus on marketing basics — you’ll get a greater return on your social media marketing investment.

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