In the B2B world, social media strategies play a key role in maintaining long-term customer relationships. In fact, with longer sales cycles, effective customer retention and engagement strategies become crucial. In the past two years, social media consumption has increased dramatically.
In this article, we will explore these B2B social media examples and strategies in more detail to understand how to use them to increase your brand’s visibility and grow your business.
What is an Effective B2B Social Media Strategy?
Ideally, your business goals should align with your social media marketing plan. You must design your B2B social media strategies according to the trends and developments specific to your industry and target audience. These strategies can yield positive results through consistent efforts, active monitoring, and adaptability to constant changes.
Most B2B companies view social media as a basic top-of-funnel tool, but it can play a much larger role. Social platforms can generate product hype, gather valuable customer insights, and enhance go-to-market strategies. By engaging in real-time with audiences, brands can create a two-way dialogue that boosts authenticity and brand awareness. When integrated across business functions, social media becomes a powerful channel, offering insights and building relationships that drive results.
A well-integrated social media strategy will focus on building a community among your customers, building trust and credibility, and creating brand awareness. IBM is an organization that is playing the social media game. It uses social media to highlight its rich history and legacy in the technology industry.
Take a look at their Instagram page, and you will see photos and videos of their most iconic products from the past 100 years. This helps build a strong sense of trust and credibility for the brand. The underlying message of every post and Instagram story is using technology for the betterment of the world, which is also their motto and vision as an organization.
How to Create Effective Social Media Strategies?
The journey to creating effective social media strategies depends on various factors, from business goals to the nature of the business and what works best for a particular organization. A luxury automobile company supplying parts to a few brands will want to focus on customer retention, brand loyalty, and valuable information for its social media sites. This may or may not work for an organization that provides AI-based technology to speed up HR work in organizations. However, there are a few key considerations to take into account when building B2B social media strategies.
1. Define Purpose and Objectives
The primary social media goals are to build brand recognition and increase visibility among other businesses in your sector. At the same time, you are generating qualified leads and capturing contact information for potential B2B content marketers.
It’s important to note that the goals for B2B social media strategies can vary depending on each business’s specific needs and objectives. It’s essential to align your goals with your overall business objectives and constantly evaluate and adjust your B2B social strategy to ensure it effectively supports those goals.
2. Understanding Your Audience
Even B2B organizations ought to take a customer-centric approach to creating a solid social media strategy. Firstly, identify your buyer personas and understand who and where your primary customers are. Then, find meaningful ways to engage with them across all social media networks. Learn what valuable information you can provide your customers and create content accordingly.
Some key starting points to understanding your audience can be
-Who is your audience?
-Is your content personalized enough for your audience?
-Do you engage enough with your audience?
-Does your content correspond to your core brand values?
3. Choosing the Right Platforms
You must identify the most used social networking platforms by your target audience, industry, and business world. Assess where your B2B audience is most active, and prioritize platforms that align with your goals. Instagram stories, Twitter polls, and LinkedIn documents are examples of utilizing the multimedia formats that are trending today.
Here are some of the most popular social networking platforms for the B2B world:
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is widely regarded as the primary social networking platform for B2B interactions. Many businesses promote their events through LinkedIn Live. It is specifically designed for professional networking, content sharing, industry discussions, and lead generation. Businesses can create company pages, join relevant industry groups, publish articles, and engage with decision-makers and industry peers.
The above-displayed example shows The B2B Marketing Company’s LinkedIn official page.
- Twitter: Twitter is a versatile social media agency that can be effective for B2B interactions as well. It allows businesses to share bite-sized content, industry news, and updates and engage in real-time conversations with their target audience. Twitter’s hashtag feature helps follow industry trends and participate in relevant discussions. Nowadays, few B2Bs create a Twitter account for customer support or troubleshooting. Further, they use Twitter threads to justify their social media performance.
The DMIEXPO in Tel-Aviv is Israel-based, where followers can take the opportunity to network with digital & performance marketing professionals, executives, affiliates, partners, lead generation experts, technologies, and service providers. The official DMIEXPO Twitter account has always incorporated industry-relevant hashtags with its tweets regarding digital marketing, web analytics, blogging, online publishing, etc.
- YouTube: While often associated with consumer-focused content, YouTube can be a powerful platform for B2B strategies. Creating informative and engaging video content can help businesses showcase products, explain services, share industry insights, and establish thought leadership.
You can embed relevant YouTube video(s) and share it across other platforms, further expanding your reach. Here, Salesforce’s video explains how to drive productivity and revenue-growth with AI. Salesforce is the world’s most trusted customer relationship management (CRM) platform. They help marketing, sales, commerce, service, and IT teams work as one to keep customers satisfied.
- Facebook: While Facebook is primarily known for its consumer-oriented user base, it still offers opportunities for B2B interactions. Many businesses have Facebook pages to share company updates and industry insights and engage with their audience through comments and messages. You can also join industry-relevant Facebook groups for first-hand business insights and information from professionals.
- SlideShare: SlideShare, owned by LinkedIn, is a platform designed for sharing and discovering professional presentations, documents, and infographics. It can be an effective channel for B2B content sharing, thought leadership, and lead generation.
You can upload and optimize the content of your business on SlideShare to reach a wider B2B audience.
- Instagram: While Instagram is more visually oriented and consumer-focused, it can still be valuable for B2B strategies, especially for businesses targeting a younger or creative professional audience. It can showcase behind-the-scenes content, employee stories, product demonstrations and product development, and industry events.
Fountain_inc shared the snapshot on Instagram. From January 29 to February 1, Fountain had a booth at the Talent Acquisition Week in SAN DIEGO, CA. In this post, Fountain asked its followers whether they had a chance to visit its stall. It also thanked its team members for their help and contributions in making their experience positive. Fountain is the frontline ATS [applicant tracking system] for high-volume hiring. Make the most of Instagram reels to increase relatability with your audience.
4. Creating and Curating Content
Once you have identified the core brand values, target audience, and the social media channels you intend to use, the next step is creating and/or curating content. In B2B settings, finding the right balance between formal and casual can be tricky. Unlike B2C businesses, most of the customers are niche.
One way to establish a strong connection with your audience is to create informative content that can add value to the lives of your existing and potential customers. Eventible is a B2B brand that strongly focuses on sharing valuable content with event marketers, organizers, and all other professionals associated with the event industry. We also provide first hand reviews of global events enabling event attendees to make informed decisions about attending future events.
While it may be challenging to churn out fresh content consistently, you can always resort to using topics that are going viral or old posts that can be modified to create new content. With the AI revolution, content creation has become faster and easier. You can always take inspiration from AI-based content and develop something original that works well for your brand
5. Focus on Community Building
From prehistoric times, humans have thrived and survived well in communities where they could support one another and combat possible threats to their lives. This evolutionary trait is integral in the world of social media as well. People long to have a sense of belonging, which is why they form groups and associations with like-minded people. A strong community also helps in building brands.
Hannah Wesson, author of Building thriving social media communities, says, “A social media community is a group of like-minded people who come together on an online platform to share their common interests. It can refer to any online group that gets together on forums or social networking sites.”
Shopify focuses on building a community of online shopkeepers excited to engage with the brand and share valuable information and tips on sustaining their businesses on Shopify.
Another example is MindBody, a B2B SaaS giant that uses an online community known as Mindbody One to retain its customers. The community is designed to support customers emotionally and holistically
6. Ethical Considerations for Social Media Engagement
Be transparent with your audience. Avoid using cheap tactics to get fake followers and comments. People are smarter than you give them credit for. Once a customer identifies your followers as fake or your testimonials as made-up, you lose credibility.
When collecting personal information from customers online, be mindful of their privacy. Giving out confidential customer information without their consent can result in a lawsuit costing millions of dollars.
Tips for Building B2B Social Media Strategies
Now that you are familiar with the process of building a B2B social media strategy. Let’s look at a few tips that would give you the edge in achieving success as a social media marketer.
1. Building an Optimized Content Strategy:
An optimized content strategy is essential for effective B2B social media strategies. Evolve your content strategy based on audience feedback, industry trends, and changing business objectives.
Start by clarifying your objectives for B2B social media content. Are you aiming to increase the brand’s voice, generate leads, establish thought leadership, or foster customer relationships? Clearly defining your goals will guide the type of content you create and the engagement metrics you measure. Subsequently, choose content formats that resonate with your target audience and align with your goals. It could include blog articles, whitepapers, case studies, infographics, videos, podcasts, webinars, or industry reports. Diversify your content formats to cater to your audience’s preferences and consumption habits.
Create a content calendar plan and organize your content production and distribution. A content calendar helps maintain consistency, ensures a variety of content types, and keeps your strategy on track. To know everything about social media plans or calendars, read our article, A Comprehensive Guide on How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar.
In the above-stated example, the B2B Playbook has incorporated testimonies of industry experts on its website. The B2B Playbook explains how to drive revenue for your business online. Incorporating testimonials or case studies will make your content more credible and accountable. Share customer success stories, case studies, or personal experiences demonstrating your business’s value.
Optimize your content as per SEO to increase visibility and organic traffic. Perform keyword research to identify relevant industry-specific keywords and incorporate them naturally in your content. Use relevant meta tags, headings, and descriptive URLs to enhance discoverability.
User-generated content (UGC) adds authenticity and can be a powerful way to engage your audience. To know about other B2B social media content ideas that may work to improve your brand image, read our blog, 27 B2B Social Media Content Ideas To Drive Success All Year Long.
2. Use Case Studies and Testimonials
Look for satisfied customers who have achieved significant results or overcome challenges using your products or services. On this basis, develop comprehensive case studies highlighting the customer’s problem, your solution, and the measurable outcomes achieved.
Also, reach out to satisfied customers and request their testimonials. Testimonials can be in written format, video interviews, or audio recordings. Ask customers to provide specific details about their experience, the benefits they received, and how your products or services have positively impacted their business. Create a video from received testimonials and share it on social media platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, or Instagram.
You can use statistics, percentages, and specific data points to showcase the success achieved by your customers. It helps potential clients understand the tangible benefits they can expect from working with your business.
Showcase your expertise and provide tangible evidence of your business’s value. These success stories can influence the decision-making process of potential customers and contribute to your overall content marketing efforts.
Eventible, the world’s first B2B event reviews platform, presents testimonials of attendees who have attended world-class events. Over 6,000 in-depth event reviews from real, verified attendees are here. Positive testimonies help to generate credibility and reliability for your business. You can use relevant testimonies of your attendees to reach out to the target audience.
3. Utilize Social Media Advertising Options
After identifying a suitable social media platform(s) for your business, determine your marketing budget and allocate it strategically across platforms and campaigns. Each digital marketing platform offers different bidding options, such as cost per click (CPC), cost per impression (CPM), or cost per lead (CPL). Identify average engagement rates of the month and underperforming ads and refine your targeting, messaging, or visuals to improve results.
You may experiment with different ad formats, such as sponsored content, display ads, video ads, or carousel ads, to see what resonates best with your B2B audience. Apart from this, try Instagram, Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn ads or any website specific to your niche business.
You must try different variables such as headlines, visuals, ad copy, landing pages, and targeting options to identify the most effective combinations.
A/B testing allows you to create ad content ideas and optimize your campaigns for better strategy.
You can also use the analytics provided by the platforms or integrate third-party tracking social media tools to gain insights into the effectiveness of your successful campaigns.
Analyze the data to understand which ads drive the highest engagement, conversions, and return on investment [ROI].
The image shows a specimen of a LinkedIn ad. With the help of LinkedIn ads, you can precisely target your audience and show them relevant ads. You can target a specific audience with your ads with these features.
4. Collaborate with Industry Influencers
Collaborating with industry influencers is a powerful strategy to enhance your B2B social media strategies. Influencers have established credibility, a dedicated following, and the ability to amplify your brand reputation.
Research and identify influencers with expertise and influence within your industry or target niche. Look for influencers whose values, content, and audience align with your brand style guide. Consider factors such as their reach, engagement rates, and the relevance of their content to your target audience.
An aspiring entrepreneur starts engaging with influencers on social media. Follow their social accounts, like, comment, and share their content. Show genuine interest in their work and contribute valuable insights to their discussions. It helps you establish a connection and relationship with them before reaching out for collaboration.
Communicate your goals to the influencer and how the partnership would be mutually beneficial. Whether you want to increase brand awareness, reach a specific target audience, drive website traffic, or generate leads?
There’s a high possibility that influencers receive many collaboration requests. Offer something of value in return for their participation, such as exclusive content, access to industry insights or events, product trials, or co-created content opportunities. It can include guest blog posts, interviews, joint webinars or podcasts, social media takeovers, or co-created videos or infographics.
Look for opportunities to cultivate long-term relationships with influencers. Collaborate on multiple projects, engage in ongoing conversations, and support their work beyond a single campaign. Building lasting relationships with influencers can lead to sustained brand advocacy and continuous mutual benefits.
The YouTube video shows an interview with Michal Warchalski, a Data Scientist from Nordeus and an industry expert at the DSC Europe event. The Data Universe company organizes the Data Science Conference. They are one of the leading Franchises dedicated to Data Science & AI worldwide. It is a multidisciplinary conference and has arranged conferences since 2015.
In the video, he discusses the opportunities opened by the use of big data and AI in the field of game development. How reliable are these predictive models, and to what extent are they influencing the processes of game design, game development, and marketing?
5. Incorporate Visual Content
“Too much tech talk. Internal clients don’t think clever. Simple or emotional visuals are as effective as feature listing.”
– Telecoms marketing executive, North America.
While incorporating visual content, make it visually appealing, relevant, and aligned with the employer branding message. Use high-quality visuals, optimize them for different platforms, and ensure they resonate with your B2B audience. Visual content can significantly enhance engagement, convey information effectively, and impact your B2B social media strategies. Visual content includes infographics, videos, slide decks, graphic images, quotes, and text overlays.
Encourage your B2B audience to create and share visual content and past blog posts related to your brand. User-generated content (UGC) can include photos, videos, or illustrations showcasing your products or services. Repost and share UGC, giving credit to the creators, to strengthen brand advocacy and engage with your audience.
On its LinkedIn page, infinite ITES asks its followers what is more important in B2B marketing, whether quantifying leads or quality interaction. Infinite ITES is a digital marketing platform specializing in B2B Tech Performance marketing.
You must experiment with interactive visual content like quizzes, polls, and infographics. These types of content encourage user participation and provide an engaging experience. Users can interact with the content, gaining valuable insights while keeping them involved.
6. Track and Analyze Your Social Media Metrics:
Continuously measures and analyzes your social media performance. Monitor key metrics such as engagement rates, reach, click-through rates, and conversions. Use these insights to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies and make data-driven decisions to maintain consistency and improve results. Regularly evaluate your social media strategies and adapt as needed.
The image depicts an example of a post-performance report of a Facebook page where you can find post impressions, engagement, and click rates.
Analyze your performance, assess the impact of your efforts, and make adjustments based on audience feedback and industry trends. Continuously refine your strategies to maintain consistency while staying agile in response to changing circumstances.
Eventible is a review platform where attendees or speakers can leave feedback. It acts as social proof to event organizers and marketers, who can use the feedback to improve their events the following year.
Event organizers can use the badges, audio, and written reviews from the website and share them on their social media platforms to promote their events. Eventible also tracks the world’s largest pool of event attendees and professionals looking to attend or promote their next event. It makes Eventible uniquely qualified to help your events, webinars & content assets find their intended audiences more consistently than any other channel. To know more about events and event-related information, visit our website.
7. Achieve the Right Balance Between Organic and Inorganic Reach
Inorganic or paid media would include all your sponsorships, brand commercials, and offers for viewers, whereas organic media is about sharing information relevant and interesting to your existing customers.
8. Humanize Your B2B Brand
Employee advocacy is the latest trend in social media marketing. Brands are going all out to encourage their employees to promote their employer’s brand name on their social media pages. One of the key benefits of this policy is increased brand awareness, credibility, and trust building, encouraging future employees to join the company, and showcasing a positive work environment to attract the right kind of investors. According to Harvard Business Review, 64% of people cite shared values as the main reason for having emotional connections with B2B brands. To build a deeper connection with your audience, make sure to weave in emotional engagement.
9. Track your Competitors
As a social media marketer, you should continuously be updated on the nature of the content your competitors are posting, their engagement, and the strategies they use to stay in the game. A lot of times, your content can be inspired by that of your competitors and vice-versa. Keeping an eye on your competitors will also help you identify gaps in your content strategy and work accordingly. You can use tools that help with social media metrics analysis to get an in-depth understanding of their performance.
Key Takeaway
With the tips and process outline discussed above, building B2B social media strategies will no longer be a challenge for marketers. You can refine your brand’s voice and strengthen your audience’s connection. Your social media presence will determine your overall brand perception and sales. So, remember to continuously evaluate, measure, and refine your strategy based on audience feedback and emerging trends to ensure long-term success.
Comments are closed.