5 Excuses MSPs Should Stop Using When it Comes to Social Media

As the owner of an MSP, one of your number one tasks is to grow your business. Simply put, without the revenue new contacts bring in, you’ll likely grow stagnant. While word of mouth is great, there is a limit to how many people you can meet. You have to market, advertise and promote your MSP services to reach a wider audience. In terms of reach, social media can provide access to a nearly unlimited source of leads. 

Yet, many MSPs don’t see the value that social media brings to their business. In fact, they have a plethora of reasons why they won’t invest in social media. Here are five excuses MSPs give for not investing in social media (and why they aren’t accurate).

Excuse #1 - I Don’t Know Anyone Using Social Media

Facebook has 2.37 billion active users. Twitter has 126 million daily users, LinkedIn, 500 million members. Now consider the other platforms, like Instagram and YouTube (and more!) with their millions of users and tell us again you don’t know anyone on social media. The number of users, companies, organizations on social media, makes it statistically impossible not to know somebody.

So, what you really mean to say is that you’re out of step with current avenues of marketing and customer communication. Hey, we get it. It’s pretty easy to feel burnt out or annoyed at Facebook, especially with how the platform has been run the last few years. It’s totally fine for you, as a person, to not see the draw of social media. You, as the business owner of an MSP, however, need to see it differently.

Not having an active presence on social media means you are willingly missing out on an untold number of leads. Your audience is there, in at least some form or fashion. 

Marketing campaigns require you to ‘touch’ potential clients more than just one time in order for your message to reach them and for it to be successful. In fact, what makes social media so valuable as a marketing tool is that you can connect with hundreds, thousands, even millions of potential customers instantly and repeatedly. It doesn’t happen overnight, but as you cultivate it, it becomes more valuable. This leads us to our next excuse:

Excuse #2 - I Tried Social Media (Once) And It Didn’t Work

When an MSP says they tried social media and it didn’t work, it usually means they made a random post or two, and since they weren’t inundated with calls the next day, social media doesn’t work. Okay, it’s not always that extreme. Sometimes a business might buckle down really hard on social media for a month or two, and not see results. There are a lot of variables that could lead to poor performance though (more on that later).

Social media (like all marketing) can take time to gain traction. 

Part of this is because you are not only competing against other MSPs, but also against the news of the day, celebrities, and funny cat videos for your audience’s attention. Most social networks are notoriously good at burying the content businesses share in favor of, well, everything else. That means you need to be very engaging, consistent, and use other marketing tactics alongside social media to show up. Paying for boosting and promoting posts can go a long way too.

This means the one, two or even dozen posts you’ve made will quickly get lost in the noise. The remedy for this is not to stop posting, but to keep posting, to keep engaging and to keep providing content worth paying attention to.

Excuse #3 - I’m Putting My Marketing Dollars In Other Places Instead

Tough love time: Your job is to generate and nurture leads; without leads, there is no money and without an income you will be unable to keep your business open. Unless you promote your MSP services, how will you attract customers? Word of mouth? An ad in the newspaper?  A billboard on the highway? Don’t get us wrong, those methods of communication have value, but the truth is, the public expects a higher level of engagement and that means social media.

Let’s say you are allocating your marketing budget to some really good campaigns - sending letters, postcards, IT Playbooks, case studies, and doing follow up calls to everyone you touch. That’s great! If your content is good, those touches can be really valuable! But, what if someone received your mailings, and then started seeing more of your content on Facebook? That additional touch is yet another little reminder that you are there, ready to help them with their next IT issue.

A social media follow is kind of like getting a prospect to bookmark you, but instead of just showing up in their bookmarks, you can continuously give them little tips and tidbits of information to help them choose you for their next IT project.

When you refuse to use social media as part of your marketing tool box, you are effectively limiting your ability to show up to your audience.

Excuse #4 - Social Media Isn’t For B2B

We hear this a lot. “Well, if I were selling sandals and beauty products, of course I’d use Facebook, but I’m selling to businesses.”

It’s interesting how we personify clients and prospects. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that they are people. People who take breaks, go home after work, and scroll through social media when not on the clock.

B2B marketing is different than marketing directly to consumers, but that doesn’t mean that social media can’t be used for both. A portion of your audience is there, after all.

Social media can be a huge traffic source. Sharing great content and occasionally linking back to blogs and other content can drive traffic back to your website. The users who make up this traffic can stick around, reading your content, going deeper into your site, and this is a positive signal to search engines. 

Social media can nurture leads, reminding your prospects that you are still out there when they are ready to move forward. You can continue to feed them content to help them make an informed decision without feeling too pushy.

Social media can help you develop relationships with other individuals and businesses. Communicating with other businesses helps promote them while forming a little bit of comradery.

Excuse #5 - I Don’t Have Time to Post on Social Media

While there is no hard and fast rule about how often to post, most social media experts believe that a business should at a minimum aim for 3 posts a week, so let’s stick to that as an achievable goal to start with.

Don’t have the time to post three times a week? You may be surprised to learn you do. Let’s say one of your techs is working on a server closet, which is in reality an unventilated room with a nest of wires and cables. With a smartphone in hand, your team becomes content producers at the touch of a button.

1. Monday - Post one: After getting permission from your client, take a photo of the messy server closet. Write a quick description like “We’re helping a client clean up the mess left by their last IT person. If your server room looks like this, it’s time for some spring cleaning!”
2. Wednesday - Post two: Use Facebook Live to describe what you are planning to do, or capture a quick video on your phone walking through the steps you’ll take to clean up the server room.
3. Friday - Post three: Take a photo of the finished work. Upload the first one so you have both a before and after in the same post. Maybe see if you can get a reaction from your client, if they are willing.

Then repeat for other projects, or post questions and answers about common technology concerns. Post about your interests. Give your local audience a reason to follow you, but most importantly, to consider you an expert in your industry.  

It’s Time Use Social Media To Market Your MSP  

Social media is the language of today and by not speaking it, you’re smothering your MSP’s marketing potential. The goal of marketing is to generate enough quality leads to keep your business healthy, so why would you deliberately reduce your sales funnel by ignoring social media?

In today’s business environment, getting noticed, starting conversations, educating your audience and providing quality content are critical parts of lead generation. Social media is one of the few tools which does all these. The truth is if your competition and customers are on social media and you’re not, you can’t compete. Sooner or later, your word of mouth marketing, will run out of mouths.

If you’re ready to get in front of your customers and ahead of your competition, but need some assistance, JoomConnect can help. We offer a variety of social media services including our Ultimate Social Media Rig, Social Media Graphics Refresh, Social Media as a Service and our revolutionary Facebook Like Campaign. Call 1-888-546-4384 today!