How to Create a B2B Social Media Strategy

Let’s look at how to create a B2B social media strategy.

If you think social media is just for B2C brands, think again. Sure, Coca-Cola, Red Bull and a ton of fashion brands blazed the trail for B2C social media marketing. But B2B brands have been playing catch-up to their consumer cousins in recent years. And they’re reaping the rewards. According to Bestwriting.com, 70% of B2B marketers have seen a surge in sales since going social. And 78% cite LinkedIn as the most powerful platform for their content. The numbers say it all. If you’re not embracing B2B social media marketing, you’re missing out.

Ready for a crash course in B2B social media? Let’s dive in.

What is B2B social media marketing?

B2B social media marketing is a low-cost, high-impact way to promote your products and services, nurture prospects, generate leads, and share your expertise through social media channels.

And it works. According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound Marketing Trends report, social media was the top performing marketing channel for B2Bs in 2022.

So why is social media important for B2B brands?

1. Your customers are there

One of the prevailing myths about B2B social media is that buyers don’t use it.

Reality check. 4.9 billion people use social media globally. That equates to 60% of the global population.

Some of those users are potential customers.

As a B2B, it’s easy to forget you’re marketing to people. Sure, your end goal is to sell your product to businesses, but people make the purchasing decisions.

The chances are they’re tweeting, liking and posting. So, you need to be too.

However, B2B buyers aren’t just using social media for personal reasons; they’re using it to research solutions and carry out due diligence on prospective business partners.

This brings me on to the next point.

2. Social media informs buying decisions

Before the internet became mainstream, buyers relied on sales reps to educate them on product features, pricing, capabilities and market trends.

But social media changed the game.

As Simon Miles explains in this LinkedIn article, ‘the digital transformation has empowered B2B buyers by giving them more control over the buying process. Buyers now prefer to conduct thorough research independently, seeking out information on supplier websites, industry forums, social media and review platforms.’

So, buyer behaviour has changed.

According to LinkedIn, 75% of B2B decision makers use social media to gather insights, read customer reviews, and compare solutions. And notably, they’re 57% through their research before reaching out to vendors.

The takeaway? If you don’t have a solid social media presence, you’re leaving money on the table.

How to create a B2B social media strategy

We’ve established that social media is a must for B2Bs. But how can you use it to fill your funnel?  With a sound B2B social media strategy.

Here’s how to build one for your brand.

1. Establish your goals

To quote Ellen Gomes, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Glint Inc,

‘one of the best ways to sabotage your content is to not tie it to your goals. Know why you’re creating content’.

She makes a good point. Without goals, content is just content. Attach some goals to it, and it becomes a powerful lead generation tool.

So, the first thing to figure out is why you’re going social. Are you looking to increase engagement? Drive traffic to your website? Establish your brand as an authority in your niche?

Whatever your reasons, clear, measurable goals will set you up for success. Just remember that, unlike B2C social media, which aims to drive sales, B2B social is more ‘top of funnel.’ So, your goals should tie in with your long-term business objectives.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the top three social media goals for B2B companies in 2022 were to:

• Create brand awareness
• Build trust and credibility
• Educate audiences.

The reason these goals top the list is that they contribute to social media B2B lead generation; the holy grail for B2B social media marketers.

2. Pin down the metrics that matter

Once you’ve set your goals, you need to make sure you’re meeting them. This is where metrics come in.

Social media metrics are data points used to assess the impact of social media activity. You can use them to gather meaningful data on everything from audience reach and growth rate to social share of voice.

Okay, but which metrics should you track? It depends. Website traffic and conversions might be important for a large ecommerce brand, but engagement may be the priority for a small B2B trying to increase their brand presence. The key is to figure out what’s important to your business.

3. Don’t forget about tracking

It goes without saying: once you’ve nailed your goals and metrics, you need to track them.

Skip this part and you won’t be able to establish the ROI of your efforts or spot downward trends that require a change in strategy.

Most social media networks have basic, built-in analytics tools. But if you want to deep dive into your data, you’ll need to pay for a social media management tool like Hootsuite.

4. Analyse the competition

Understanding how your competitors are using social media can take much of the guesswork out of your strategy. So, do some digging.

What platforms are they on? How often do they post? How many followers do they have on each channel? What sort of content is generating engagement?

This will give you an idea of where you can make gains. For example, if your competitors are posting loads of brand-centric content, but little that addresses the state of the industry, you’ve got a prime opportunity to share valuable content your audience isn’t getting elsewhere.

‘Stalking’ the competition will also help you work out which platforms to focus your attention on.

Which brings us to the next point.

5. Choose your channels

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the three most used social media platforms for B2B marketers in 2022 were LinkedIn (96%), Facebook (76%), and Twitter (now X) (70%).

But that doesn’t mean you should rule the others out. Business accounting software provider, Sage didn’t, and it paid off. In 2021, the brand launched #BOSSIT2021, the UK’s first B2B TikTok challenge, to celebrate the resilience of small businesses during the pandemic.

The brand invited TikTok’s small business community to show how they ‘bossed 2021’ by sharing videos of their business wins and achievements. To be eligible, entrants had to use the #BossIt2021 hashtag and the official music track. With £5,000 up for grabs, the campaign attracted a ton of entries; 1.3 million to be precise. It also bagged Sage 8.2 billion impressions, a wealth of PR coverage, and a whopping 193% increase in sales.

Want to know how TikTok can supercharge your PR strategy? Read: It’s Time to TikTok for PR

Which platforms should you be using?

Sage saw success on TikTok. But that doesn’t mean it’s right for your brand.

Work out where to focus your efforts by:

• Finding out where your target audience is active. An audience research tool such as SparkToro can help with this
• Evaluating the features and tools offered by the various platforms
• Testing the platforms, monitoring your performance, and refining your strategy accordingly.

Creating content

B2B products and services run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, or more. And buyers aren’t just buying a product or service – they’re entering into a relationship that could last for years.

To convince them your business is worthy of their investment, your content needs to:

• address their pain points
• answer their questions
• educate and inspire trust
• set you apart as an authority in your niche.

Don’t know where to start with B2B content creation? Here are a few ideas to kickstart the process.

1. Educational content

‘Teach, don’t sell’ is the motto you need to adopt with your social media content marketing.

As Stephan Wenger explains in this LinkedIn article, the B2B sales cycle ‘can be a long process…your job as a B2B marketer is to help establish trust along the way…you gain trust by providing content that serves your audience instead of selling to them.’

Blog posts, ebooks, webinars, and thought leadership content are great tools to showcase your expertise and inspire trust.

Or you could take things up a notch with a live show. The folk at revenue intelligence platform Gong.io went down this route with Gong Labs Live. The weekly show saw the hosts debunk sales myths, share actionable insights, and debate hot industry topics with industry experts.

2. Explainer/demo videos

B2B buyers are busy. And product research is time consuming. Want to make their lives easier? Pop an explainer video on your socials.

Explainer videos are short, informative films that explain complex products, services, or business concepts in a simple, digestible way. Eye-catching and information dense, they combine animation, graphics, music, and narration to engage and educate.

Considering 96% of buyers watch them to learn more about a product, an explainer video is a handy asset to have in your digital toolbox. This 75-second video about digital grids from US tech brand Cisco is a prime example of an explainer done right.

3. Customer testimonials

92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase a product/service if they read a good review from a trustworthy source. This highlights the importance of social proof.

You can leverage social proof via online reviews, media mentions and endorsements from industry thought leaders. But nothing beats a glowing customer testimonial, especially if it’s caught on camera.

Filmmaker Ben McFarlane explains why in a LinkedIn article.

‘You have a real person, talking about their real experience of using your product/service and how it has benefited their business. That human connection is always going to resonate more with viewers than them reading a series of emotionless text quotes on a website.’

Want to see a testimonial done right? Look at this one from Salesforce. Emotive and compelling, it doesn’t focus on the features and benefits of Salesforce. Instead, it highlights the impact the platform has on someone’s life. Powerful stuff.

4. Interactive content

Social media is all about engagement. And what’s the best way to drive engagement? Interact with your audience. Aside from addressing customer’s questions and engaging in relevant conversations on social media groups, there are two surefire ways for B2Bs to drive engagement.

Polls and surveys

People love sharing their opinions on social media. Use this to your advantage by creating a poll or survey. Quick and easy to set up, you can use them to:

• Identify users’ pain points
• Gauge interest in new products or services
• Collect product feedback
• Measure customer experience
• Capture demographic information.

Take this Twitter poll by Search Engine Journal. The brand created it to determine which social network drives the most traffic to users’ websites. The poll attracted over 500 responses and provided the brand with valuable insights, which they repurposed into a blog post. A savvy marketing move.

Q&As

When it comes to audience interaction and engagement, you can’t beat a good Q&A. A great way to engage with and add value to your audience, if you get it right it, a Q&A can skyrocket engagement. Just ask Intuit Quickbooks. During the pandemic, the accounting software brand launched ‘Ask the Expert’ to ‘provide small business owners with crucial advice on how to survive the crisis’. The daily, 30-minute live-streamed broadcasts saw business experts answer finance-related questions posed by Quickbook’s audience on YouTube. Informative and engaging, the show was a runaway success.

The videos reached more than 6.5 million small business owners and garnered 1 million+ organic views and 78,000+ engagements. To top it off, the series bagged Quickbooks two prestigious B2B Marketing Awards. #PRwin

Ready to go social?

Social media has transformed the marketing landscape, providing B2Bs with unique opportunities to educate customers, nurture prospects and generate those all-important leads.

82% of B2B brands are taking advantage of the many benefits it has to offer. If you’re not one of them, it’s time to set your strategy and start reaping the rewards.