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If you're in charge of B2B marketing strategy, you might overlook social media as a channel, thinking that your business is based on personal referrals and that your target customer doesn't use social media to seek suppliers. But today, there's no business that doesn't benefit from social media marketing. And here's why. 

They are on social media, having conversations. They might even be having conversations about your industry or even your company. Having a presence will help you maintain relationships with customers and ensure you're not out of the loop.

New customers can find you via social media, plus having engaged and up to date social media profiles supports SEO - so if ranking on Google is important to your business, social media is a must.

Every company benefits from having strong branding and social media can help you position your brand. When done well, that positioning will in turn resonate with your target customers so you're front of mind when they are in that purchasing mindset.

Company social media channels build trust

If your business is looking to acquire new customers, building trust is going to be an important objective. Brands with a considered social media strategy and good community management will appear a safer choice compared to those without.

There's no other form of advertising that's as targeted

No matter how small your industry or niche is, you'll find your audience somewhere on social media. Whether it's baby boomers or gen Z you are looking for, they're congregating on social media so don't miss out on opportunities to build relationships with key players.

Take a look at how we utilised social media marketing for Alpha Crew in this 

.

If you work in B2B and would like some advice with your marketing strategy, you can sign up for a FREE social media workshop with our team. Find out more 

person devising b2b marketing strategy on the go

Why Your B2B Marketing Strategy Must Include Social Media

We’re offering 1:1 social media workshops all summer. They're 30mins-1hour long via video call and we're happy to wade through your woes, splash some ideas around and dive into strategy chat too. These will run like a 'clinic' so there's no formal presentation - it'll be a casual chat which is all geared around your specific frustrations or questions. 

We’re here to make managing social a balmy breeze 🏝

social media workshop with swwim marketing agency portsmouth london

We’re Offering 1:1 Social Media Workshops All Summer

March brings with it some exciting notable dates including International Women’s Day (8th) and the first day of Spring (20th). Keep scrolling for some key March dates to help inspire your content calendar this month.🙌

National Bed Month is an annual awareness campaign that has taken place every March since 1990, with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of sleep. This March, The Sleep Charity are encouraging us to dedicate some time to improving our sleep, which in turn can have a positive impact on our overall health.

Are you a brand with a focus on self-care? Could your customers benefit from tips for improving sleep? This could be a valuable way of tying in the awareness month with your brand content.

1st March - Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day 🥞

We look forward to Pancake Day like we look forward to Christmas here at Swwim. Crepes, American style, banana pancakes, galettes, we love every type of pancake.

Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day) always arrives 47 days before Easter and is the day before Ash Wednesday which signifies the start of lent.

Recipe Reels, topping themed polls and pancake puns are all fun ways to weave Shrove Tuesday into your March calendar.

This year World Book Day is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Each year World Book Day commits to boosting joy through reading and offers every child a free book in exchange for a voucher.  Each year WBD has a different theme, with this year’s being "You Are A Reader".

There are lots of great events going on for WBD, you can find out more over on their 

Books are a great talking point. Get to know your audience better by asking them what their favourite book is using an Instagram story question box. Or perhaps help them get to know your brand better by sharing your team’s top reads for March.

8th March - International Women’s Day 💁🏻‍♀️

provides an important moment to showcase commitment to women's equality and gives us an opportunity to celebrate the amazing ways women and girls around the world have continued to push forward in shaping a more equal future.

The theme for IWD 2022 is #BreakTheBias. The movement is encouraging us all to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness against bias and take action for equality. The IWD website has a wealth of information and 

 for brands, it’s well worth taking a look at.

The IWD website has some great ideas for ways that you can celebrate International Women’s Day including holding a digital event, launching a new initiative or delivering a female-focused activity. Perhaps you could hold an Instagram Live discussing ways to #BreakTheBias, or gather quotes from females close to you about how they break the bias.

Crufts ‘the greatest dog show in the world’ takes place in March and around 20,000 dogs are expected to head over to the NEC arena in Birmingham for the event. Crufts celebrates “every aspect of the role that dogs play in our lives" and depending on your brand, this could be a great theme to mirror within your content this month.

If Crufts is a relevant event within your brand industry, or something your audience is interested in, perhaps you could post a reactive story series as the event is going on and utilise the Instagram stickers such as the question box or poll. Everyone loves a bit of dog content, right?!

St Patrick’s Day began as a religious holiday and over time evolved into a full-scale celebration of Irish culture. On the 17th March, you can expect to see parades, music, drinking and a lot of green!

Has your brand got ties to Ireland? Share your favourite St Patrick’s Day traditions, create a green-themed recipe or share a roundup of the best events going on. Get creative and think of how you could incorporate your product into the content.

Spring will be springing this month and we are very happy about this! Warmer days are on the way, along with fresh starts, beautiful blooms and very cute baby animals.

There are lots of ways to move your content over from being winter-centred to more spring-focused. Think about switching up the colour scheme of your content to suit the bright tones of spring. If your brand offers seasonal products, now could be the time to switch up the focus to your warmer weather goods.

Mother’s Day provides us with the opportunity to celebrate all the mother figures in our lives, in the many forms they come in.

Celebrate the many roles of mother figures - perhaps share authentic stories from your team or customers. It's important to be inclusive with your marketing efforts when focusing on topics such as Mother’s Day, as whilst this day can be filled with love, that won’t always be the case for everyone. Make sure your content represents the diversity of your audience.

Social Media Calendar Dates For March

Your first step towards advertising on TikTok is to make sure you have an organic page to advertise from. You’ll need this to create an ad account. It's also a great way to test content and find out what performs best organically. That way you can ensure you are using top-performing content in your 


Set yourself up on the TikTok Business Centre

Once you’re all set up with an organic page, and ready to get going with ads, you’ll need to create a 

. If you’re familiar with Facebook advertising, this works in a similar fashion to the Facebook Business Manager.

Your TikTok Business Centre account houses your assets in one easy to find place:

You can link your organic TikTok page through the business settings area in the Business Centre.

Link a TikTok ads manager account to your Business Centre

Once you’re all set up and verified, head to the assets section of your Business Centre account. You’ll need to select the “Request Access” option, this is where you paste your ads manager ID.

If your ads manager and business centre accounts are set up through the same email then your ads manager will automatically appear. Make sure you remember to add yourself as an admin under the member tab, then you’re all set!

You’ll need to create a TikTok pixel and add it to your website. This is a great tool for building custom audiences, whether you’re wanting to retarget or advertise to a cold audience through lookalikes.

You can do this through the assets tab in your ads manager account. You’ll be able to track events that occur on your website and even on your app if your brand has one.

The easiest way to add the pixel is to send the instructions to your developer! But if you have access through a CMS then the internet is full of guides, check the specific instructions for your provider through their website or a quick google search.

Now you’ve got all the back end bits set up for your account you can start advertising! So you need to decide which objective is best for what you’re trying to achieve. Some of the different options available to you include:

TikTok has its own minimum ad budgets which you’ll need to meet:

£50 per day minimum (if using campaign level budget optimisation)

£20 per day minimum (if using ad set level budgets)

But you will also need to consider your own levels of spend for the platform, based on what you’re trying to achieve. We put together a 

This is where you can get creative with your targeting. Add in those custom audiences you’ve built using your pixel, or select behaviours and interests that are most relevant for your target audience. This includes targeting people who have interacted with particular creators or hashtags which is quite a powerful tool. You can also filter your audience based on age, gender and location.

In the beginning, it’s best to keep your targeting broad, this gives you a bit of testing time to understand who is interacting most with your ads as you might find the results surprising. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

This is the TikTok advertising mantra. Content that performs well on the platform blends into the “for you page” seamlessly. This isn’t a new idea, you will often find the creatives that don’t feel like ads perform better. We put this down to people’s mindset, you’ll find better results if you prove the worth of the product or service authentically. You should keep this idea front of mind when creating your assets for TikTok ads.

There are a few different formats you can try:

Spark ads - these are a great new addition which basically means you can promote content from your organic page.

What other advertising options are available on TikTok?

In-feed advertisements aren’t the only option available to you with TikTok, that’s what makes this channel so unique. Outside of the ads manager parameters, through the use of an account manager, you can access some more immersive and unique ad formats. These are usually reserved for brands with larger budgets, as minimum spend is considerably more. These formats include: Top View, Brand Takeover, Hashtag Challenge and Branded Lenses.

Read about how to best utilise TikTok for B2B marketing in this 

business owner using tiktok advertising on their phone

How To Use TikTok Advertising For Your Business

First of all, wtf even is the Metaverse? Here’s what we kind of know:

The metaverse is the future of the internet.

The metaverse is a shift in how we interact with technology.

They are virtual universes that merge reality and the virtual world.

A metaverse’s timeline syncs with real-world timing.

The metaverse does not pause or end when you leave them. They continue indefinitely.

They’re a fully functioning universe that allows users to create, own, sell and invest.

Whilst it sounds quite daunting at the moment, if you put it into perspective, it’s not too far off from how we’re living right now. A lot of us already use our phones 8-10 hours a day and spend our spare time binge-watching TV or playing video games online with our friends or strangers. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are already heavily immersed in digital life.

A poll of 2,000 adults found the typical week will see 59 hours – the equivalent of more than two full days - spent using the internet. - The Independent / NordVPN


According to Meta, the metaverse they are envisioning is still 10-15 years away, however there’s no denying that things are starting to look less IRL and more VR lately.

Companies are now thrusting themselves towards virtual trends before they get left behind. So far already in 2022 we’ve seen a booming rise in VR headset sales, Gucci sold a digital bag for $4,115 (their physical bags cost $3,400 in stores), a virtual H&M clothing collection with Maisie Williams and PLT using their first virtual model.

It’s all escalating pretty quickly right?

So what does this mean for marketing in the metaverse?

The metaverse isn’t just a trend, it’s here to stay so make sure you stay up to speed with the latest updates.

The metaverse we are all imagining isn’t quite here yet (and may be years away still) but virtual trends and worlds are happening right now.

Create virtual experiences that tie in with your real-world marketing.

Could you offer immersive experiences that users can interact with?

Keep up to date with Decentraland to see what others are doing in a virtual world.

The metaverse will allow brands to reach new audiences in fresh and creative ways.

Start thinking about how and when your brands can show up in the metaverse.

Connect with already existing members and experts of the Metaverse to build strong campaigns.

Be open and willing to experiment but also aware of the challenges you may face.

Consider that the later you join, the costlier it may become for marketing efforts.

And that’s just scratching the surface! We strongly advise you jump down that rabbit hole of metaverse research so you can help to keep your brands relevant.



 to see which types of social media marketing can help your business!

Are You Ready For Metaverse Marketing?

What do you want to achieve from your paid social media advertising?

First things first, work out what it is you want to achieve. You always need a clear goal for any marketing campaign, whether it’s awareness, traffic or conversions, as your objective sets your measure of success.

If you’ve run a few paid social campaigns, however big or small, then you’ve got some data to work with which is always a bonus. Use this data to help set target KPIs and calculate results based on previous spend thresholds.

If you’re working it out in the dark, things are a little more complicated. You can use paid social benchmarks for your industry to calculate what you’ll get for different levels of spend. This is a good way to kick things off, and then you can check data once everything is live and re-forecast.

We’ve put together this handy template to help you forecast your spend across several different types of paid social. See which seems appropriate for your brand and what you’re hoping to achieve.

Visit here to download our paid social budget template


Some other things to consider when setting paid social budgets…

Your other marketing activity will impact results on your paid social campaigns, and vice versa. If brand awareness is low this will push up your average costs on paid social campaigns. Paid social should be used as part of your channel mix - don’t put all your eggs in one basket and make it your whole strategy.

For example you could be tempted to funnel all your spend through Facebook, and ignore the other 

. We wouldn't recommend this for a few different reasons. Firstly, if Facebook has an outage then all your marketing campaigns will go off with it - definitely less than ideal! But not only that, in today’s digital landscape, you want a marketing strategy that’s synergised with multiple touch points for a consumer. People rarely see one advert and convert straight off the back of it, you need to vary your channels and communications to stay front of mind.

Contact us at hello@weswwim.com to see how we can help optimise your social media advertising!

marketer working on a paid social media advertising budget

How Much Should You Spend On Paid Social Media Advertising?

The days of caring about Instagram post likes are slowly fading into the realm of irrelevancy. Nowadays, comments, shares, and saves are what really boost engagement rates. New features on Instagram, including the ability for only the uploader to view the amount of likes their post has received, have only reinforced this. 

When planning your Instagram strategy, it’s essential to create saveable content to encourage your audience to interact with it long after it’s gone live.

Saveable content is simply content that your audience wants to view again. People saving your Instagram post is a strong indicator that your content has resonated with them, and that they found it valuable enough to save it for later. 

This type of content often includes lists, tips, recipes, tutorials, infographics and videos. When it comes to Instagram saves, perhaps a user liked your content but wasn’t ready to consume it when it was served to them, so they bookmarked it for later, or perhaps your content resonated with them enough that they want to keep viewing it again and again. Either way, the save will boost your engagement rate, telling Instagram your account is a popular one. This means your content is more likely to be served up organically by the algorithm.

Swwim’s Top Tips for Generating More Instagram Saves

We’ve got four tips to help you create saveable content for your audiences:

Writing longer, more in depth captions is a great way to make your post saveable. If you can't add the saveable content you want into the feed image, add the detail to the caption instead. They are essentially then saving the caption to come back to and read, not necessarily the image itself.

Encourage your audience to save the post with a call to action in your captions! Phrases like, ‘save this for later’, or ‘come back and tell us...’ are great ways to get your audience engaging with your posts.

Evergreen content is content that retains its relevance over time. Things like motivational quotes, calendar events for the year or checklists are great ways to get your audience to save content that will be relevant to them for weeks or months to come. See our blog post on 

For your actual feed post to be more saveable, use formats like infographics, lists, tutorials and tips to make content that your audience wants to come back to. For example, if we turned these tips into an Instagram post, it would be a great way to get our audience saving!


See how we've included Instagram as part of our client's social media strategy in this 

.

If you'd like more ideas and help with your 

person viewing instagram saves on their phone

Are Instagram Saves Important?

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