A Guide to B2B Social Media Marketing: What should you be posting?
Business to business (or B2B) marketing is tricky and made even more so if you are a B2B marketer in an industry that might be considered, for lack of better words, “boring” in the social media space. But B2B companies can no longer afford to coast with weak or absent social media. A whopping 60-84% of people consider mobile devices essential to their work, and mobile devices are the main vehicle by which social media is consumed. With their devices out, it’s more likely they will check in on social, and no matter the platform they are surfing, their personal and professional wires are likely to cross on social media. With that in mind, a company is remiss if they don’t leverage that.
But how does B2B fit into the world of social media marketing—of flashy ads on the side of Facebook, Tik Tok dances, influencers, and all those retail and ecommerce posts—when it’s fundamentally different than the more common B2C marketing? Well, knowledge is power, so in our white paper “A guide to B2B social media marketing,” we’ve laid out not only the fundamental discussion of B2B versus B2C marketing, but also where and how B2B marketing can really stand out and gain the biggest ROI in the social media marketing space.
Below are some gold nuggets straight from the white paper, and if you’re looking for a deeper dive into all these discussions and more, download our free white paper by filling out the form below!
B2C versus B2B marketing
B2B marketing is quite different than the business to customer (B2C) marketing that typically comes to mind when someone thinks “marketing.” Though B2B can use the same touchpoints to connect with their clients—social media, email, text messages, phone calls, blogs, etc—there are fundamental differences in the B2B marketing landscape. What are those differences?
One monumental shift is that most B2B companies use social media for content promotion and awareness, not for selling as ecommerce or retail would). It’s top-of-the-funnel marketing. Though cost of products obviously varies, usually a B2B company sells larger quantities of product or products with higher price tags.
B2B social media marketing: Where
It’s not a surprise that one of our suggestions is to not overextend your social posting. Between posting, keeping up with comments and DMs, and interacting with other content, it’s smarter to manage a few networks well rather than manage a lot of networks poorly, so we suggest to stick to two or three main platforms, such as:
LinkedIn focuses on education and thought leadership with a robust ad platform.
Twitter is a B2B mobile leader.
Facebook is the original ultra-popular social platform, and it has incredible reach.
Instagram is visual and an excellent place for the company culture to take center stage.
YouTube is an excellent way to share high-quality, educational content.
But which should you prioritize? To some extent, where to post depends on your industry, and here’s some homework for you—go look up direct competitors and other businesses within your industry on all the common networks and see not only if they are posting, but how much and what. If you’re looking to get started on social, this sort of research is a great place to begin.
B2B social media marketing: What
Each business has their own goals for their brand identity; nevertheless, there are a few proven content goals that have big ROI in the social media space for B2B marketing:
Create brand awareness.
Educate the audience and give them big value, for free.
Build credibility and trust in your brand.
But now you may be thinking but what actual posts can do this work? You read our minds. In our white paper, we provide tangible examples of content you can post that will achieve one or more of the above goals.
Dynamics 365 Marketing
For any business—small to enterprise, B2B or B2C, in any industry—a strong customer relationship management (CRM) tool is a necessary part of their social media strategy. Dynamics 365 Marketing is a flexible, customizable, cloud-based solution to help you manage your social media strategy. Plan and post social media content, make redirect URLs for stronger analytics, setup marketing forms, and pages. And we haven’t even touched on lead scoring, email marketing, customer journeys, and the many other things that make this app so powerful. (See the newest updates in our recent blog.)
Looking for more?
We dive deep into B2B social media marketing in our white paper on the subject, including examples of what to post, additional tips to get the most social media value out of your content and expected changes to 2022 marketing budgets. Fill out the form below to download a free copy!