Social media marketing for B2B companies – A beginner’s guide

Peek into your own social media usage pattern, and you will realize that B2C marketing is, in fact, quite successful in generating awareness, interest, and sales through social media. Further, retargeting those who have shown interest in products works very well in convincing the prospects to purchase.

Social Media Marketing for B2B Companies

B2B is fast moving toward a similar situation. B2B buyers spend 27% of their time researching online⁽¹⁾. Many do not prefer connecting with sales representatives either. LinkedIn too plays a significant role in B2B marketing, as there are 630 million professionals on LinkedIn, and 4 out of 5 LinkedIn users drive business decisions⁽²⁾.

Wondering if your audience is using social media? 58.4% of the population is an active user of social media⁽³⁾. So the answer could be yes! Content marketers across industries are now adapting to the changing marketing landscape, as it is the need of the hour.

Read on to find out how you can adopt B2B social media marketing to grow your business.

Why are B2B companies choosing social media for marketing?

83% of B2B content marketers⁽⁴⁾ use social media ads or posts, a significant increase from last year. Businesses are using social media platforms for:

• Building brand awareness – Make your brand seen in more places by the target audience.
• Engaging with customers regularly – Establish a communication line wherein they can see your content and engage with it regarding likes, comments, and shares.
• Educating customers – Share tips, tutorials, videos, and infographics and satisfy the prospect’s need for information and knowledge.
• Establishing thought leadership – Emerge as a leader in your industry by showcasing the right policies, values, and conduct.
• Building trust and confidence – Through consistent content marketing on social media over a period, you will be able to establish trust and confidence with your existing and potential customers

To match up to or go beyond the growth your competitors are experiencing, B2B social media marketing has become more of a necessity than a choice.

Social media platforms for B2B marketing

This is where one needs to walk with a bit of caution. Every channel has its own identity, and it attracts certain types of audiences. Look at the channels and what they are most useful for.

• LinkedIn –

  LinkedIn is where professional networking happens, with most users being decision-makers. 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn⁽⁵⁾ for content marketing. It is widely used for lead generation through the circulation of B2B event invites (such as webinars, conferences, and product unveiling) and paid ad campaigns.  

• Facebook –
  

  Facebook is for social networking and building communities of like-minded people. With more than 2.9 billion monthly⁽⁶⁾ active users , it is the largest social media platform, making it very difficult for businesses not to explore it. Promotion of B2B events can be done in these communities. Further, you can run paid campaigns targeting specific personas. This organic promotion can help save marketing costs.

• Instagram –
  

  Instagram is all about visual feeds – photos or videos. It is a good choice for brand awareness and product promotions. From using branded hashtags to posting reels showcasing expertise and quality, Instagram allows you to be creative. 50% of Instagram users say they are more interested in a brand when they see ads for it on Instagram⁽⁷⁾.

• Twitter –
  

  Twitter is a social networking platform focused more on current events and thought leadership. Brands use it extensively to engage audiences. 82% of B2B content⁽⁸⁾ marketers use Twitter.

• YouTube –
  

  YouTube channel is a video-sharing platform. Videos can be product demos, webinars, tutorials, skippable and non-skippable video ads, customer testimonials, interviews, and so on. 87% of video marketers feel that video gives them a good ROI, and 86% feel it helps them generate leads⁽⁹⁾. YouTube is the second-largest search engine, making a solid case for brands to use it for B2B marketing.

Types of content used for social media marketing

This door opens to many creative content formats that can make your audience stop scrolling to view your content. However, while developing a content marketing plan for social media, it is crucial to align it with the customer journey stages. Each content type serves a different purpose.

Here is what you can look into, depending on your campaign type.

• Videos – Tutorials, processes in the manufacturing units, product launches, and trailers are some types of videos you can post. Each video must use storytelling to connect with the audience.
• Images  – Pictures of products, technology, employees, leadership, and physical locations such as manufacturing plants, can help build brand awareness.
• GIFs – Creative GIFs can be exciting, humorous, and memorable.
• Infographics – These are ideal for depicting facts, statistics, tips, steps, and anything that needs quick grasping.
• Polls and Quizzes – You can gather the opinion and feedback of audiences through polls and quizzes. Such features are available on most social media channels.
  

Measuring the success of your social media initiatives

After developing a social media marketing plan and executing it, you can’t simply go with success. You would need definite KPIs to determine whether your strategy is working and showcase the success to senior management. Social media platforms provide data for the following KPIs, whether your goal is brand awareness, more leads, or conversions.

• Reach – This indicates how many people were reached through your posts. Impressions and followers are the metrics to note here.
• Engagement – This covers the KPIs such as likes, shares, comments, and mentions, which indicate your interaction with audiences.
• Conversion – This can include leads generated through sign-ups, subscriptions, and downloads.
• Customer Satisfaction – This can be measured through rating scales, opinion polls, or even the likes and mentions on social media.

The KPIs must be aligned with the goal, which is aligned with the stage of the customer journey. For example, if the customer is in the awareness stage, the goal would be to create brand awareness, and KPI could be related to reaching, such as impressions and followers.

Useful tools for social media marketing

Social media marketing tools help you streamline your activities. You can create posts, set a posting schedule, track mentions, likes, followers, retarget audiences, and so on. The tools help you save time by bringing all essential functionalities and data to one place. One of the time-saving tools is HubSpot Social Media Marketing software. With it, you can create campaigns, schedule posts, track mentions, likes, and followers, get suggestions on keywords, and much more. Measuring the effectiveness of the campaigns and finding out ROI is easier. Hootsuite and SproutSocial are a few other tools you can explore.

While all these social media channels, content formats, easy-to-use tools, and the possibilities with social media seem limitless and exciting, it is a clear strategy that will yield results. Having a clear understanding of how you want your brand to be perceived to which channels will be appropriate for you requires planning. When brands do not have the required bandwidth or the skills, the easiest thing to do is leverage the services of a B2B social media marketing agency.

How can Ethosh help get your B2B social media marketing on the right trajectory?

At Ethosh, our customized digital solutions include social media campaigns as one of the effective ways of engaging with customers. Our digital marketing and domain experts develop winning campaigns after understanding user behavior and interaction with various platforms. Additionally, with our Managed Content Services, marketers can expect effective content at scale and cost advantage.

Reference and Citation-

1. https://blog.hootsuite.com/b2b-social-media/

2. https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/cx/18/01/b2b-sem-desktop?lr=1

3. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-global-overview-report

4. https://blog.hootsuite.com/b2b-social-media/

5. https://blog.hootsuite.com/b2b-social-media/

6. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/#:~:text=With%20roughly%202.93%20billion%20monthly,used%20online%20social%20network%20worldwide

7. https://business.instagram.com/

8. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/b2b-2021-research-final.pdf

9. https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/