July 30, 2021
When business owners think of social networking online, there’s probably only one platform that comes to mind—“LinkedIn.”
But Main Event Digital knows that a growing number of small business owners are making better connections within their communities using Alignable.
Alignable is a B2B social media site that is designed to create more meaningful relationships, and to connect business owners to their community in a way that drives lead generation.
Many folks on LinkedIn will point to the number of connections they’ve made on the site, but in some cases these don’t lead to anything but inflated numbers. Alignable works against this unfortunate side of social media by actively encouraging members to recommend each other and solicit services and products from one another.
When it comes to sheer volume of users, LinkedIn does reign supreme. Alignable has 6.5 million users in over 35,000 communities in the US, whereas LinkedIn has over 740 million worldwide. This makes LinkedIn fantastic for establishing professional-to-professional relationships, but for many small business owners, this approach doesn’t create more leads.
But bigger doesn’t mean better, and while Main Event Digital doesn’t contend that businesses should ignore LinkedIn, they should also ask themselves how well the site fosters valuable leads. By using Alignable to work within your local community, you can actively generate referrals, solve logistical needs and have your neighbors connect with your brand.
As a small business owner, it’s probably your intention to become a national brand, or perhaps even global. But you have to start somewhere, and Main Event Digital will help you network within your local market, to get on the road toward becoming a bigger brand.
Alignable is hyperfocused on connecting you, and your business, with other businesses that have shared needs, or are simply close to your business geographically. You can either connect with business owners in a community within five to 10 miles of your company, or join a community that spreads across the country, and is brought together under a single category. Once these connections are established, Alignable shows off its true value.
Alignable is designed to produce quality relationships that encourage new connections to meet in person and create a lasting relationship of mutual benefits. A smart social media strategist would help small business clients to join each other’s Alignable groups and to engage in multi-merchant promotions.
Main Event Digital always has your ROI in mind, and believes that if your company is going to spend resources on social media, then there should be a lead generation campaign in effect. B2C companies will make valuable relationships, while B2B companies will actually have opportunities to generate leads from your content.
Alignable is a B2B platform first and foremost, as your company logo is front-and-center, but Main Event Digital also likes to include a headshot of the business owner. This will come up during communications, which our team is experienced at helping manage.
Main Event Digital wants your business to be present on Alignable, but not overly so, as we set up and manage email preferences to filter out any connections that are self-serving, and not valuable to you. We want your connections to be valuable, and we’ll start with businesses that you know in your local community or industry community.
Main Event Digital will also create content that encourages your target audience to ask questions in an effort to establish your company as a thought leader in your industry. This is the basis of our content approach, and in the case of Alignable, if you desire, Main Event Digital can help you become an Alignable Group Leader, which establishes your business as the head of the pack in your industry.
Main Event Digital will post content on Alignable that shows your business is a thought leader in your industry. Alignable is first and foremost a social media avenue that encourages people to connect, and good content will accomplish exactly that.
There are many different kinds of content that you can share on Alignable, from whether your business just had a killer sales month and you want to share it, or you just want to share some general expertise on a common topic. But since these kinds of posts could go on any social media platform, what works best on Alignable are active measures.
These active measures include asking advice from other business owners in your community, as this fosters the beginnings of a conversation. An even more proactive approach is to start a referral campaign, giving incentive to business owners in your community. Alignable Groups even has a referral-specific post type, as lead generation is a common practice for businesses.
Main Event Digital has helped countless clients launch email campaigns that have different calls to action, and one of our favorites is to set up a meeting over coffee, or lunch. Alignable testimonials attest to the ease in which they’re able to set up these meetings, turning casual conversations into sales.
Referrals, joint promotions with other non-competing businesses and event promotion are other calls to action that are made simple by Alignable’s platform. Communications can be linked to your email, and your company's other social media sites, making it extremely easy to send promotions and invitations to your entire network on all of your social platforms.
Get the support you need to be a champ on Alignable. Get in the ring with Main Event Digital.
