B2B businesses are using social media to create content that is exciting and speaks to their niche audience. They are using social media to connect with their audience and create a community.
To be successful on social media, a B2B company’s content needs to be engaging without disrupting their audiences’ experience on the platform.
10 B2B Social Media Strategies for Any Industry
1. Set SMART goals
A social media strategy needs to have KPIs in order to measure success.
Here is an effective example of a SMART goal for a company that is just starting to gain traction on social media:
Goal: To build brand awareness on social media.
I want to increase our company’s brand awareness by posting more regularly on social media. I will post on Twitter four times a day, instead of once, post daily on Instagram, and increase our weekly publishing frequency on LinkedIn and Facebook from four times to seven times per week.
The goal is to increase engagement rate by 4% across the board.
Our engagement rate increased by an average of 2% last month when we increased our weekly publishing frequency and spent more time writing thoughtful and engaging copy.
If we increase engagement rate, we will be able to increase brand awareness, generate more leads, and sales will have more opportunities to close.
Time-Bound: End of this month.
The goal for this month is to have a 4% increase in engagement rate across social media channels by posting more often and focusing on copy that is thoughtful and engaging.
2. Keep an eye on competitors
Checking up on your competitor’s social media marketing strategy can give you some insight as to what kind of campaigns they’re running and whether or not they’re successful. If their target audience is similar to yours, you can take some inspiration from their marketing strategy.
While it is important to monitor your competition on social media, it is not about copying their strategies. Working in the same industry will result in some crossover with your audiences and their interests. If you notice your competitor is not responding to trending news, then it might make sense for your brand to do so. Finding these opportunities will help you stand out from your competition.
3. Share original content
Although it may be tempting to post content from other sources on your social media platforms, it is more important to post original content. Your audience can tell the difference between content that is original and content that has been posted just for the sake of being active on a platform.
4. Use multimedia
When a social platform launches a new feature, social media marketers get excited because it’s a new opportunity to test with their audience.
There are certain multimedia formats that are unique to each social media channel. For example, Instagram Stories, Twitter polls, and LinkedIn documents. Utilizing these formats is a great way to engage your audience and get the most out of each social media platform.
If you want to hold your audience’s attention, try creating and publishing multimedia content on your social media channels.
5. Highlight your employees
Many B2B companies do a great job of promoting their employees, which allows the audience to put faces to the company and make the brand more relatable. This is important for companies of all sizes, because whether you’re selling computers to businesses or opening a neighborhood restaurant, people are the heart of your business.
In addition to improving morale, highlighting your employees also has the potential to improve your employer branding.Employer branding is the practice of promoting your company as a great place to work, and can be increased by giving your employees opportunities to talk positively about their experience with your company. This can help attract new talent and improve retention rates.
6. Have a distinguished brand voice
Having a strong brand voice is important for companies because it allows customers to easily recognize their content. A strong brand voice can also help a company build trust with its customers.
Your social media content should always be aligned with your company’s perspective. Having a unique brand voice also gives you the opportunity to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
7. Offer support
It is very frustrating when you tweet at a brand with a customer support issue and they do not respond. If you cannot dedicate a separate Twitter account to support, at least try to reply to these tweets as soon as possible. This will help improve your customer relationship and show future customers that you are responsive to their concerns.
8. Maintain consistency
It can be difficult to post on social media consistently. This requires a lot of time for content creation and planning. A good strategy when you are first starting out is to create content that is interesting and adds to the conversation instead of posting every day. It is better to have a few well thought out posts that people will engage with than a lot of posts that are not interesting.
You can maintain consistency by creating a publishing calendar and scheduling your posts ahead of time.
9. Experiment with content and posting times
If you want to take your social media presence to the next level, start by analyzing your audience and figuring out when and what they want to see from you. There are best practices for social media posting that you can use as a guide.
There are endless experiments you can conduct on your channels. Here are some ideas to inspire you:
- Alternate between using questions and statistics in your copy to see which one pulls your audience in more.
- Test different link positions to find out if it makes users more likely to click.
- Add emojis to see if it increases interactions.
- Post more frequently.
- Post less frequently.
- Put a paid ad behind a video post and a still image to see which performs better.
- Segment a different part of your audience to test how they react to an ad.
- Test different amounts of hashtags to see if it affects impressions.
- Spend more time replying to posts to find out if it increases your follower count.
10. Engage in conversation
Social media was created to help connect people with each other. Even brands have been using it for a while, people still see it as a way to connect with others.
If all you do is push your product at your audience, your brand won’t be able to connect with them.
You need to engage in conversations that your target audience is interested in, even if it does not have anything to do with your product.
Addressing goals for B2B social media marketing
It is especially important for B2B companies to focus on setting goals.
Based on recent research breaking down the most-cited benefits of B2B content marketing, marketers should prioritize the following:
- Creating brand awareness (86%)
- Educating audiences (79%)
- Building credibility and trust (75%)
1. Creating brand awareness
Businesses should be clear about their identities, what distinguishes them from competitors, and what they consider important as a company. Social media is ideal for disseminating this information in the form of short pieces of content.
2. Educating audiences
The B2B buyer’s journey is more than just visiting a website. Many research independently to ensure that the company is credible.
One way to make your audience trust you is by teaching them. Your B2B social marketing strategy should be focused on creating content that is educational and can be put into practice. This can include blog posts, e-books, videos, and firsthand reports.
3. Building trust
B2B brands are facing a lot of competition, so anything you can do to build trust and show that your business is valuable is a good thing.
The best way to show that your company is doing well and that customers are happy is to post testimonials, positive reviews, and awards on social media. Social media is the perfect place to collect and share this type of information.
4. Adopt a customer-centric B2B social strategy
The idea that brands need to be more “human” is something that is often talked about.
B2B companies are just like any other company- customers should always be kept in mind. Irrelevant of how technical or specialized your product is, customer engagement is key to making your brand more relatable.
Twitter has become a go-to platform for customer service in the world of SaaS marketing. It is a more timely alternative to email and offers a transparent space for customers and businesses to communicate about questions, feedback, and compliments.
5. Align your B2B social media strategy with business initiatives
This point is worth reiterating.
A common belief about B2B social media is that it does not provide a good return on investment.
Some marketers do not connect their social media to data about performance or communicate these results to different departments.
It is important for companies to use social media to support company-wide initiatives. This is because social media is a good place to connect with people who are not in marketing, and to provide them with information about campaigns.
6. Overcome the “boring” B2B content label
Although people may not get excited about software, security, or finance, they will still be interested in your service if you are in one of those industries.
It can be a challenge to make your social media presence more interesting, but it is possible.
7. Refine your brand voice
No surprises here: don’t talk like a robot.
A more casual, conversational brand voice can make your social accounts seem more human and approachable. Contrary to popular belief, a “professional” voice doesn’t need to be stuffy or inflexible.
8. Adapt your content to social-friendly formats
You can generate more interest in your content by changing your post captions and formats.
For example, would you be interested in following someone that just drops link after link with no commentary? Below are some ideas to both give your social feed(s) some flavor while also giving your content some entertainment value:
- Convert blog posts or lists into short infographics
- Instead of simply linking a podcast or video presentation, publish a minute-long snippet
- Use Twitter threads and long-form text posts (think: LinkedIn) as an alternative to external links or even blog posts
9. Stay on top of trends
So much of B2B social media centers around trends.
In today’s business world, things are constantly changing. Companies are always coming up with new ways to promote their products, and some companies end up doing better than others. It’s important to stay up-to-date on all the latest industry news so you can make the best decisions for your business.
It is beneficial to monitor what your customers and business rivals are discussing on social media. By doing this, you will be able to more easily identify patterns and join in on conversations that are significant to your industry.
10. Embrace employee advocacy
You should try to let your employees talk about your brand.
Nobody can show off your company’s human side better than the people who make it run. Employees can add their own personality to your brand voice, at the same time as displaying your company’s culture.
11. Focus on the most B2B-friendly platforms
This is especially true for B2B companies who have to be careful with how they spend their time promoting their business.
There are a few channels that are “best” when it comes to B2B social media, according to recent research from the Content Marketing Institute.
Here are the key points to consider. We recommend that you focus on one or two networks so that you do not try to do too many things at once. Here are some key points to keep in mind.
- LinkedIn: the ultimate B2B network known for thought leadership content, employee engagement and a robust ad platform.
- Twitter: a prime place to spot trends and interact with customers and business influencers alike.
- Facebook: most Facebook B2B marketing centers around ads, but it’s also a good hub for employee-centric, non-promotional content.
- YouTube: perfect for how-to tutorials, interviews, presentations and commercials.
- Instagram: ideal for visuals (think: infographics, brief how-tos) and culture-centric content
12. Use analytics to inform your B2B social media strategy
Reporting and analytics are very important for B2B social media. You need to be able to answer questions such as which networks are most effective, whether your efforts are resulting in actual traffic or sales, and whether it is time to start running ads. The only way to do this is with good reporting and analytics.
If you want to know how well your company is doing and how you can improve, analytics can give you the answers you need.
Does your B2B social media strategy make sense?
B2B brands need to be active on social media or they will miss out on potential customers.
The tips mentioned above can help you create a strategy that works best for your needs, whether you want to raise awareness or promote your content.