How online B2B publisher Sift Media reaches business audiences with social media
Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your name and what do you do there for Sift Media?Triana Murtagh (TM): My name is Triana Murtagh and I?m the marketing programme manager at Sift Media, supporting the small business, HR and training, and marketing B2B publishing units.
SMP: It?s a new role for you, so where/what you doing before?TM: Previous to Sift Media I was working for GDS International as the marketing manager for their iStrategy digital marketing events.
SMP: How did you snag the job and what will you be doing at Sift Media?TM: From the start I knew this would be a great role and company to work for. My role within Sift Media is marketing programme manager. My responsibilities are to support some of the online B2B publishing units and help them achieve their business objectives.
SMP: What will you be doing on a daily basis?I work across a number of publishing sites including
UKbusinessFORUMS,
MyCustomer and
HRZone. I will be working on various marketing activities to help build their audience, raise brand awareness and uncover commercial opportunities. These activities can range from email campaigns and media partnerships through to integrated marketing programmes. Recently the biggest task has been project managing our small business competition
The Pitch.
SMP: Briefly, tell us about Sift Media what is it and what does company do?TM: Sift Media is a B2B online publisher who believe people should be inspired, every day. We deliver original, branded content to over half a million professionals in accounting, HR, training, marketing and small business. By producing quality content and engaging our professional audiences across multiple touch points, we offer B2B brands unique marketing opportunities from emails to website display, insight report and events, which deliver genuine return on investment.
SMP: Who are your target audience and why?
TM: The
names of each online publishing unit pretty much says it all about our
target audience; small business, HR, training, and customer service/CRM
professionals. From the outset the founders of Sift Media wanted to
create online communities for professions that were prone to seeking
information via the internet.SMP: What are the challenges that you?ve encountered and how are you overcoming them in what you have been doing so far Sift Media?
TM: My first big project with Sift Media has been working on The Pitch event, which is a UK small business competition presented by our SMB unit titles BusinessZone.co.uk and UKBusinessForums.co.uk. This year we put the whole application process online which added new levels of complexity that were new to us. The challenges were trying to make a process that was seamless and also easy for people to follow. There have been some issues along the way, many of which we have worked around, and others are points to consider for next year?s round of applications.
SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far in your new role?
TM: With The Pitch event I was tasked with bringing in a certain number of applicants. It was quite a learning curve as the target audience was new for me, and it challenged me to think of different ways to reach them. As we counted down to the deadline, and I looked at the numbers and realised we made our target, I was incredibly happy.
SMP: What are the main social channels Sift Media uses, why and which are the most effective for Sift Media?TM: With each of the units the target audience can be found on different social channels but one that we all use strongly is Twitter. For HRZone, TrainingZone and MyCustomer, LinkedIn is another great channel to reach professionals in those fields. With BusinessZone and UKBusiness Forums, Facebook tends to perform better than LinkedIn.
SMP: What sort of activity are you receiving across the social channels Sift Media uses and how do you create and sustain this?TM: If we look at The Pitch event?s Twitter account
@The_Pitch, since the beginning of the campaign in March this year, we had a weekly average of 325K mention reach and 911K retweet reach. These figures jumped way up during the week leading to the entries closing date. The key is creating content that stimulates engagement and conversation, which we are hoping to maintain with continued blog posts and event announcements.
SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities for B2B communities/publishers and how can they overcome them?TM: With so much information available from competing B2B communities we have the challenge, but also the opportunity, to create an offering to our audience which is compelling and will keep them loyal and coming back for more. Content will play a major role, but also thinking of new, creative ways to present it.
SMP: What are your top five social media tips for B2B publishers?TM replies with:- Use LinkedIn. This can be such an undervalued resource and platform to get your brand and content out to people.
- Use more images. I see so many posts, which would be more attractive and noticeable if that had an image coming up in my twitter stream, or on LinkedIn. There?s a handy site called Canva.com, which allows you to easily create images to use on social media.
- Get some evergreen content. There?s nothing wrong with sharing content from a year ago, so long as it is still relevant.
- Create unique URLs to help track clicks. Whether it?s to compare how effective posts are on different channels or when getting a partner to share a link. Bit.ly is my poison of choice.
- Do some self-promotion. By this I mean use your own social channels to promote your other social groups. Tweet to your follows to visit your LinkedIn group, and post from your Facebook group/page that you also have a Twitter account.
SMP: Best way to contact you and Sift Media? TM: I can be contacted via email at triana.murtagh @ siftmedia.co.uk, or on Twitter
@tree_onahill, and for the wider Sift Media team you can visit
www.siftmedia.co.uk which has contact details for all our publishing units.
Now some questions for fun
SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?TM: I had scrambled eggs with ham for breakfast.
SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?TM: I said, ?Bless you? to a random passerby who sneezed, who then shouted after me ?thank you?.
SMP: If you weren?t running or working on Sift Media what would you be doing?TM: Travelling the world. I love exploring new places and experiencing different cultures.
SMP: What?s your favourite B2B publishing site and/or community and why?TM: I really enjoy LinkedIn, not only for the information sharing that goes on but also the networking and sense of community among some of the marketing groups. I?ve attended several Bristol-based meet ups put on by groups, which have all been very valuable.
SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?TM: New York City! It was my first time, despite being an American, and I loved it. Highlight had to be the Statue of Liberty and looking out from her crown.
SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?
TM: Make a pot of coffee if no one else has. Can?t start my day without it.
SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?TM: Telekinesis, to move objects without touching them. Seems a pretty effective way to prevent bad things from happening. Also means I can grab a beer without much effort.