People are spending more time on social media and relying on their networks for recommendations and reviews of products and services. In fact, 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions
That’s only going to keep growing over time so companies with B2B social media strategies in place are more likely to take advantage of the growing benefits of digital marketing.
Brands that want to stay top of mind and increase influence on decision-makers need to evaluate and adapt their marketing strategy as algorithms and behavior on social networks are constantly changing.
Whether you are at a startup and just starting brand-building efforts or you’re a part of an enterprise with thousands of employees, the following strategies and tactics will improve your B2B social media marketing and drive results.
Best B2B Social Media Strategies
While B2B brands are getting better on social media, many organizations still fall into outdated strategies, are lazy with their approach, or post too robotic. This turns people away from your brand and could cause your company to miss potential sales opportunities or attract top talent.
Here are some B2B social media strategies and tips to get your company on a better path to success.
1. Define goals
Behind every successful B2B social media marketing campaign was a well thought out plan and set of goals. Each company will be different with what it wants to track and achieve with its digital marketing efforts so it’s important to decide how you want to measure success early on.
Being clear about what part of the marketing funnel a piece of content is meant for will not only help with making creative decisions but also assist with how to evaluate its performance.
For example, if your brand’s goal is to drive awareness, content should lean towards educational materials about new products, what challenges your products to solve, and issues in your industry.
Website traffic, reach, and brand search volume is the metrics you’ll want to monitor if your goal is higher brand awareness. While content to generate consideration of your brand among potential customers should focus on driving engagement.
71% of B2B companies say that high engagement is the main goal of their content marketing efforts.
For engagement, the goal is to strike conversations with content that resonates with people. Interactive content with questions or polls is easy ways to get people talking, too.
Likes, video views, comments, and clicks per post are all metrics that track engagement levels and determine the success of consideration-focused content.
Keep in mind – platform algorithms reward comments and interactions which will increase the visibility of your posts. There is a snowball effect so engagement is a key component of your digital marketing strategy.
2. Identify content opportunities
When determining your B2B social media strategy, we recommend conducting an audit of the social content that your competitors are producing.
Are there any platforms that they are neglecting? Are they producing certain content types but not others? Are there any new channels that your buyers are paying attention to? How is your brand differentiated?
These are great opportunities to take advantage of content gaps and fill them with valuable insights.
It is worth the effort to establish your brand as the leader in your industry on a social platform by sharing original content that no one else is trying yet.
Also, social networks often reward creators that use newly released features so being creative and testing out new content types will benefit your brand. Both by showing you’re creative and innovative, as well as the added bonus of platform support.
Showing your product in action through videos or blog posts is one way that your brand can show how you provide value that is unique from your competitors.
3. Showcase and support customers
Customer testimonials can have a powerful effect for B2B companies on social media. They provide real-world examples of people using your products and the benefits they receive from them.
Personalized recommendations are great to share on social media because they build trust with your brand and offer the chance to connect and ask questions with other customers directly.
Sharing customer success stories establishes that your brand values partnerships with its clients and will advocate for them.
Brands should also engage in conversations with customers that are looking for support or having issues. Customer support on social media shows that you’re transparent and proactive about providing a positive customer experience.
It also provides other customers the opportunity to learn from your answers if they are experiencing the same issue. Responding publicly to customer support questions on social networks creates a customer community and strengthens bonds with your brand.
4. Choose the right platforms
Being at the right place at the right time is crucial for your B2B marketing strategy, especially on social media.
And the benefits for B2B brands using social networks are clear. B2B blogs and websites get 90% of their social traffic from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And, LinkedIn drives half of this traffic.
LinkedIn is a platform that B2B brands will definitely want to prioritize, but other social networks offer value, as well. Instagram and TikTok are gaining attention and maybe a great opportunity for your brand to be where your buyer spends a lot of their time and stays top of mind.
An important part of a social media strategy is posting consistently so be sure that the resources on your team are equipped to maintain sharing levels and interaction.
That may mean choosing a couple of platforms to focus on at first and then adding others as your team expands or gets into a content creation rhythm.
5. Encourage employee advocacy
One of the best ways for a B2B brand to establish a more personal connection with customers on social media is to highlight the people that work there.
A company’s employees are what makes it special and unique – they are the force behind every successful product, innovation, and business decision.
So getting to know more about them, their employee experience, and what they care about can help potential customers decide if they want to work with a particular vendor or business.
Brands that support people sharing and promoting their companies on social media are at an advantage because the content is more trusted and shared from people than brand channels.
It also leads to higher reach and engagement on social posts when employees share company content to their own networks.
Many companies are using employee advocacy platforms like EveryoneSocial to make it easy for employees to know what to share about their business, create user-generated content, post at times that are convenient for them, and what company social posts to engage with.
6. Develop a personality for social media
Too often, B2B social media becomes boring and sounds robotic. Instead, your strategy should include developing a personality and voice that sounds human.
Whether that is on corporate social accounts or via employees sharing on social media, make the copy and voice authentic!
People can read through marketing copy or corporate jargon, which honestly is BORING! Certainly, you’ll need some limitations and guidelines in place, but your social efforts can be creative and informative without sounding like a robot.
Your social content should build trust and emotional connections to your audience and it’s a great reminder when your content shows real people with real thoughts. And this also applies to your paid social campaigns that you might be running, don’t be another boring ad in the feed!
7. Master social selling and engagement
Although you want to do more with social media than just look at it as a lead gen tool, social networks are still fantastic places to generate sales. This is where social selling becomes important, which typically will be something your sales team will do.
But social selling is simply the way to capture prospects’ and audiences’ attention, which will lead them into your marketing or sales funnel. The goal is that you build a relationship via these channels by engaging with other people’s content, providing value and insights, and sharing ideas.
While it is okay to share about your company’s product or services, don’t think that just sharing a link constantly is social selling.
Remember, 91% of B2B buyers are active on social media. And sales reps using social media as part of their sales techniques outsell 78% of their peers.
8. Mix up your posting categories on social media
You’d be surprised how often B2B brands get stuck in this vortex of boring content that was clearly scheduled just to get something posted. Audiences will see through and find now the value in what your company or employees are posting.
So along with the personality, mix up the kind of content you are posting. It might be more work, but it doesn’t need to take as long as you might think!
Utilize content formats like native video directly uploaded to the social platform, blog posts with interesting copy, images, text-only content, user-generated content, content about your people, data and customers, product or services content, etc.
Find a rhythm where you consistently mix up the content you are posting and the times you are posting. And if people comment on the post, make sure to engage back or respond.
Additional Social Media Strategy Benefits
While this article focused on B2B social media strategies for marketers, social media has the opportunity to drive results for any department at an organization.
Hiring and talent acquisition teams benefit from a brand’s strong presence on social platforms by making it easier to connect with and attract talent.
Sales teams can use social networks to connect directly with prospects and build relationships in the industry as thought leaders.
Product and customer success teams can monitor customer feedback and support questions to drive improvements on the features that customers are talking the most about.
Using the strategies listed above can have positive downstream impacts on many areas of a business and provide a lot of value.
Many B2B organizations are doing a great job with social media and breaking out of the “boring shell” that many had done in the past. But it doesn’t mean your organization doesn’t have some experimenting and work to do.
