PR News Interview with Heather Dueitt: Social Media Through the Eyes of a B2B Marketing Communications

Originally posted on PRNewsOnline.com and in the August 15, 2017 print edition. 
Social Media Through the Eyes of a B2B Marketing Communications Pro
Editor’s Note: In this regular feature we ask PR leaders to tell us about people who’ve influenced their career, the best ad- vice they’ve received and trends they’ve spotted. This week’s interview is with Heather Dueitt, director, marketing/commu- nications, at NoteVault.

• Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. This is something I heard at Edelman in NY, when I sat three rows away from Richard Edelman. It’s always stuck with me. A follow-up to this is to do one thing that scares you each day; don’t be afraid to try things and pilot some- thing. And don’t be afraid to ask a question or demand something from your agency. Just because something is the industry trend, why not try doing it a different way? In the last six months I’ve really taken this advice professionally and personally. Especially because we don’t have big budgets like some of our competitors, we have to be a little more creative.
• Create an open environment where anybody feels comfortable bringing up ideas and providing feedback. At Edelman when we did brainstorming we’d bring in every level of employee and interns. Some of the best ideas came from fresh minds who were slightly outside of what we were dealing with. Then you pilot the idea, build parameters and measure it. You have to be comfortable with failure, which is still something that’s difficult for me, but sometimes you have to fail so you can learn from it and build an even stronger program.
• Not every social channel is for every brand. If a brand is at the beginning [of a social media effort], pick one [channel] that makes sense for your brand and give it a try. Determine the value of each channel and where you’re going to spend your time. And make sure [what you’re doing on social] is measurable. Set smart goals, because it can be such a time suck. It’s the same with content market- ing. We download our SEO and top keywords and we back into our social content. Even if you’re just tweeting about something, make it SEO- focused...make social work for you just a little bit more.
• Google+ is one of the channels that people just don’t touch. But from a search perspective and organic search it lasts longer and helps push up your results. That’s a trend I’m starting to see other brands embrace. People overlook Google+ because they only look at the engagement element of it. You want likes, sure, but in a B2B context we’re really trying to get [visitors] to go to our blog content or our website, where we can communicate in a longer form. So it’s that click-through that is my ultimate metric from an engagement perspective. You can have 300 likes, but if nobody’s clicking through or read- ing the content, what value are you providing?
• LinkedIn Groups is the most effective platform for our business...our sales team members and I are posting valuable content into the different industry groups. That leads to conversations with users or people who could be potential prospects. It’s getting a bit spammy so we make sure to share content that provides value. It’s not just “sign up for a free trial.” It’s “here are the top trends that we see in the construction industry.” Yes, our audience is on Facebook but they’re not wanting to communicate with us about software when they’re look- ing at their granddaughter’s pictures. We don’t want to force that on them.
• Never use being the only woman in a room as a crutch because then you’re always going to be leaning on it. It’s still challenging and shocking, though. What’s gotten me to excel is that I’m analytically driven. You’re going to have doubters and naysayers, so I just present the facts. I always have the facts stand behind me even when people take a different angle. 

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