How to create the best B2B Social Media Strategy

Are you having trouble with building your B2B social media strategy? This article can ease your struggle and make the most out of the numerous SoMe channels.

Cracking the social media code can be challenging. And perhaps even more when it comes to business-to-business accounts. Suddenly, the likes and comments are not just indicators for ourselves but actual marks of your business’s acknowledgment. That is why you should ensure you have an ass-kicking B2B social media strategy! In this blog post, we are going to help you achieve just that.

But first, what is B2B social media marketing? – We will briefly explain that in the next section. (If you are new to social media marketing, we suggest reading our introduction to the basics of B2B SoMe here).

What is B2B social media marketing?
Top B2B Social Media Statistics
How to build a B2B social media strategy
Top B2B Social Media Marketing Platforms
Conclusion

What is B2B social media marketing?

In a nutshell, social media marketing is all the activities a company creates or engages with on the different social media (SoMe) channels. The main objectives of these activities are creating brand awareness, building trust, and educating customers. Along the way to meet these objectives, there are smaller milestones and goals – all something that you should consider in your soon-to-be strategy!

So why this focus on SoMe for B2B brands? – below is a few statistics that should help convince you to utilize Social networks as a B2B company:

Worldwide, people spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes per day on social media
Social media will account for 33% of all digital advertising spending in 2022
In 2022, social media video ad spending will grow by 20.1% to $24.35 billion
66% of Facebook users visit a local business page at least once a week
211 million active Twitter users that can be monetized through ads
70% of viewers bought from a brand after seeing it on YouTube
Over 810 million people across the world use LinkedIn
LinkedIn boasts over 57 million companies listed on the site

Does social media work for B2B?

We already highlighted that most B2B companies do have social media accounts. Besides, the statistic above speak for themselves, and advertising on these platforms is popular. All these facts indicate that SoMe do work for business-to-business purposes. The question is, which channels are the most relevant and could work the best for your customers? – What should’ve your B2B Social Media Strategy?

When it comes to strategy, it all comes down to goals and expectations. You probably work with key performance indicators (KPIs) in your business. Using KPIs or any other measuring format for B2B social media is also relevant.

There are multiple metrics you can track as indicators of SoMe performance. The number of followers/ page visits/ number of impressions/ likes/ comments/ shares and engagement rate are just some of the many parameters you can track.

Also, there are also several tools you can apply for scheduling and planning your posts. If you are new to Social media an Excel sheet or google calendar is a good starting point.

SoMe posting schedule

Some say the secret is to dedicate specific weekdays to posts on certain topics. And then keep repeating that weekly cycle. An example could be:

Monday: Post about the employees of the company
Wednesday: Post about your product/service
Friday: Post relevant news related to your business.

Then, week after week, follow this system, and post something related to the ‘topic of the day’.

While some believe in structure and predictability, others swear on dynamic and spontaneous content creation. That means no structure and almost randomly posting whatever and whenever. Irrespective of your preferred style, some level planning is needed to meet objectives and track performance. After all, B2B social media marketing is all about planning. Also, you should be aware that results won’t show right away – It will take time and continuous work to build a first-class profile on any SoMe channel.

How to use Reposts in B2B Social Media

SoMe channels are great for collecting and sharing what others say about you. All the great feedback you get, reviews, and testimonials, can be added to the list of contents for your own profiles or even your website – as long as it is relevant and brings a positive vibe to your feed.

But just because someone mentioned your company name in a post or comment, you shouldn’t re-post it immediately. You must ensure that any shared posts fits your strategy and tone of voice – and, of course, that they put your company in the best light possible!

Collaborations and partnerships

SoMe partnerships and collaborations are a great way to show the world who you are working with. And even more importantly, it can help you reach a bigger audience.
Another bonus of collaborations is the association effect. When your potential customers see you and your partnering brand together, they will associate you with them. So if you can partner with a strong brand with excellent qualities and values, there is a good chance that customers presume your brand shares these same qualities and values.

What are the top B2B Social Media Marketing Platforms? We’ve already mentioned some of the most well-known ones in the statistics section (LinkedIn, for example). But there are plenty more platforms to pick from. In fact, any SoMe channel used for B2C is also suitable for B2B.

You probably know all of the big channels; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok. But there are also a bunch of other smaller platforms. A couple of examples are:

Twitch, Tumblr, Flipboard. These are usually less known because they target a more niche group of people. But depending on your product and brand, going for a niche platform can be beneficial! So spend some time looking into the many different platforms and their focus when planning the SoMe strategy of your brand.

Best Type of B2B Social Media Content

Building your brand and image via social media channels might be the best way to make the most out of a B2B social media strategy. And while there are multiple ways to do this, educating your users and the audience, in general, is always a great approach. This is especially beneficial for your credibility. With educational posts, you can form the way people see your brand and the whole industry you operate in.

In B2B social media marketing, you can also utilize the engagement you have with your followers. Sharing questions and suggestions from customers or sharing customer feedback are all great topics for your SoMe channels. It can also supplement customer support by answering frequently asked questions or sharing best practices and informative use cases. The old saying “sharing is carrying” is also true for SoMe. Why wouldn’t you spread all the good stuff others say about you?

You should, however, be mindful of a few things before you start to re-post or share others’ content. Foremost, whose posts do you trust enough to present on your channel? Secondly, what kind of content aligns with your objectives and core message? Once these are collected, you can create a lot of content by just re-posting others’ work.

You can follow this link for some inspiration on some B2B Social Media posts.

Conclusion

Social Media can influence your business and sales performance – it doesn’t matter whether you are selling B2C or running a B2B company. Building the right B2B social media strategy is not easy. But it is necessary to run a successful account that adds to your brand’s recognition. Of course, it is not all it takes to build a good company image. The way you present your products to your customers is even more essential.

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