If you've read Ben's post yesterday you will know that when it comes to social media, sellers to schools clearly favour using Facebook and Twitter in their marketing mix. No great shock there, but when we look at how they are using these two social media giants the picture gets a little more worrying.

Facebook and Twitter can play a massive role in your Inbound marketing to schools; not only enabling you to capture more great leads through teachers sharing your value-adding content with colleagues, but also giving you an informal way of building closer relationships with existing clients, gradually nurturing them into champions of your brand.

But how successful are sellers to schools with their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and how do you benchmark against the competition?

Q8. How many company Facebook likes do you have?

MIND-BLOWING STAT 1: 75% of all sellers to schools surveyed have on average a meagre 33 Facebook likes.

MIND-BLOWING STAT 2: A whopping 42% of companies surveyed have zero Facebook likes/no account whatsoever.

This once again highlights how slow some sellers to schools have been in evolving their marketing and company image. Building a solid base of Facebook likes is imperative to expose an ever increasing audience to your company. Why not build ways to boost your likes into your plan, e.g. ‘like us on Facebook to receive a free report about XYZ.’

Q9. How many company Twitter followers do you have?

MIND-BLOWING STAT 1: 70% of all sellers to schools surveyed have on average just 60 Twitter followers.

MIND-BLOWING STAT 2: 39% of companies interviewed had zero followers/no account.

I have to admit that i find it difficult to get on with Twitter, because a good tweet is instantly knocked off its perch by a flurry of ‘white noise tweets’. That’s not to say it can’t work for you. To really get Twitter working for you, why not use it as a reaction tool for your marketing.

Instead of tweeting the usual “For great products call us, blah, blah, blah”, react and respond directly to teachers’ tweets and conversations which can be related to what you offer. Don’t push for a hard sell, offer support, and then before you know it you have a new inbound lead in your pocket!

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Selling to Schools Email Teachers Marketing Strategy UK Schools Marketing How to Sell to Schools

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