Introduction: Social Media Strategy For B2B

In the dynamic landscape of online business, leveraging social media isn’t just reserved for B2C companies. In fact, approximately 18% of web traffic flows from social media channels in the B2B realm. Apparently, there is a huge gap in opportunities on social media. Worldwide B2C companies have said to generate maximum sales by developing a social media strategy for B2B. Well, for B2C businesses, the decision-making lies with people who are already on Instagram or Facebook for many hours a day. As per research, 64% of consumers say they’ve been influenced to make a purchase by a video they saw on social media. Whereas, B2B decision-making involves a process and a hierarchy of people. 79% of business-to-business (B2B) sales have more than one person involved in the purchase process.  As a B2B marketer, you should also carefully choose the channel and goal of your business.

Why do you need a social media strategy for B2B?

80% of C-level executives and 75% of B2B buyers use social media as part of their decision-making process. According to IDC, social media channels are becoming vital in forming relationships with prospects and customers during each stage of the customer lifecycle. You shouldn’t be on social media just because everyone is hopping on the bandwagon. First, identifying a goal for social media strategy for B2B is necessary. Let’s see, for example, what could be included in your goals of creating.

1. Brand Presence and Awareness
2. Communication with your customer
3. Building trust and authority
4. Generating Leads

1. Creating Brand Presence & Awareness

The above objective works like a charm when you are a new business. Your target audience will connect with your brand story, logo, personality, and colors. Brand awareness is a top-of-the-funnel activity. For finding your target audience, the process is to ask “to whom” and where you’re speaking. Then, after we apply our 

whom you are making aware of the brand?

Where are you going to target them?

2. Communication with your customer

Social media has become a means to communicate with your customers. Approaching it as consumer-centric rather than company-centric builds rapport with customers. Broadcasting news and updates is one of the most efficient ways to win hearts. Industry-related news puts you as an influencer of the industry. Answering pain points through live chat or providing customer support by answering tweets You also need to interact with customers. Thus, to get responses from customers, try conducting giveaways.  In this manner, the company gains a client, and the client gets a product or service. Repeat conversion becomes a possibility when posting giveaways. It is always fun to adopt a casual approach once in a while by posting quizzes or polls; this will force the audience to engage with and remember your brand

3. Building Trust and Authority

A short-form tutorial, a series of product usage guides, and customer success stories can help you leverage the storytelling power of videos. As a result of their high engagement on social media, videos can simplify the complicated process for B2B sellers. A common mistake that B2B marketers make is to create “purchase from us” content that’s purely commercial. Instead, you should create content that helps buyers solve a business need or gives them advice based on their buying journey, such as comparisons.

4. Generating Leads

The ultimate goal of any business is generating leads, getting orders, and ramping up sales. Using lead-generation forms is the smartest and fastest way to generate leads. Running ads with forms so that once the client clicks, the form opens up. Ads are the best solution for this direct goal.

How to form Social Media Strategy For b2b

Building a social media strategy for B2B businesses is easier said than done. But if you work on your basics, it is a long yet satisfying process. The simplest thing to do is to ask a lot of questions about whom we are creating the strategy, where you would execute the strategy, which channels we should choose to execute the strategy, and lastly, where all marketers slip, the biggest question is: what content should you post to achieve your business goal?

1. Whom? = Target Audience = Create Buyer Persona
   Any new business must identify an accurate B2B buyer profile. by asking a few questions based on demographics, gender, behaviors, and customer goals. High Return on investment manifests by filtering out other users to find an ideal user

Here is a list of questions to consider when creating a buyer persona.

• What is the age and gender of the buyer?
• What is their role in a company?
• Their experience in the industry?
• Who are their customers?
• What social media do they use?
• Which niche in the industry do they belong to?
• What is the market capital of the company?
• Are they repeat customers or one-time customers?
• Communication preference? Email or phone call? 

How creating a buyer persona will help businesses make Social Media Strategy For b2b

Since the characteristics of the buyer are clear, the business can further its social media strategy for a B2B plan. That is making content consumable by your customers. Let’s assume your buyer is using industry jargon; They are trusting certain experts in your industry. They may love seeing illustrated colors, stories, or even direct sales. All these parameters help in making social media posts that are relatable and relevant to them. Your content speaks to your audience like a friend or a guide. Now it has become easier to get on the radar. Thereby, it helps you achieve measurable goals like brand awareness, trust and authority building, and growth in the audience.

Where? = Pick the right channel = Twitter & LinkedIn

Considering the B2B decision-makers, CEOs or managers are not sitting on the sofa and watching videos all day. Based on their profession, they are most likely to use Twitter and LinkedIn.  Let’s jump on some facts.

• 87% of B2B marketers use Twitter

• 46% of B2C and 80% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn.

• 98% of B2B enterprises see value in social selling, but only 49% of them have developed social selling programs.

If you read the third fact carefully, even though marketers see value in social media, only half of them have developed a process to execute the strategy. Which creates a huge gap for B2B businesses.

3. What kind of content do marketers share on LinkedIn and Twitter?

LinkedIn

This 19-year-old social media channel is more professional than any other social media channel. With 830 million members worldwide.  Although it initially started as a hiring platform, it has now become a hub for freelancers and B2B businesses. The very reason 57+ million companies are listed on this platform These professionals trust that insights or leads coming from LinkedIn are more valuable & trustworthy than any other source. That is why 73% of buyers are more likely to consider a brand if the salesperson reaches out via LinkedIn. Let us explore two ways businesses can implement their strategies.

LinkedIn Groups 

A LinkedIn group for B2B is similar to what a Facebook group is for B2C. These LinkedIn groups are free of cost and a brand can reach out to many potential clients at once. Joining groups that are your B2B profession and industry-related and posting about industry-related news insights or expertise can attract a lot of clients.

LinkedIn inmail

Businesses pay heftily for email marketing. LinkedIn inmail is a personalized advertisement message service, but it’s conducted in a more professional setting. moreover, It allows you to directly message another LinkedIn member with whom you’re not connected. This service is available for LinkedIn premium members. Though LinkedIn inmail has a better response ratio than email marketing. Since most InMail responses arrive pretty quickly: 65% within 24 hours and 90% within a week. So next time try a different approach of LinkedIn inmail ad rather than cold email outreach. with Linkedin, you might get a response from the management of a company. So your message won’t circulate in the trap of bureaucracy; it rather will reach the right person.

Twitter

5% of B2B marketers trust this 16-year-old social media platform to market their products and services. Which is heavily dominated by men as the ratio of male users to female users is 2:1. With a greater number of decision-makers present on this platform, the processes and lifecycle of acquiring customers have become easier. Why do we say that? 63% of Twitter users are between 35 and 65 years old. Belonging to the demographic who are designated as managers, VPs, and CEOs. Businesses can incorporate many proven strategies that can grow their clientele as well as conversions. Following are some of the most common and effective ways to achieve business goals through Twitter marketing 

Twitter poll

Twitter polls are designed to collect feedback and give people a chance to become part of managerial decisions. These polls are a potent way to know what’s on your customer’s mind. There are different kinds of polls that you may take.

1. Creating a poll about emerging industry topics can establish your brand as a thought leader
2. Promoting your products
3. Creating your own branded hashtag
4. Asking for ideas to generate new content

Twitter Thread

According to Twitter, “A thread on Twitter is a series of connected Tweets from one person. With a thread, you can provide additional context, an update, or an extended point by connecting multiple Tweets together. And anyway, Customers are likely to click on an informative Twitter thread rather than a tweet with a promotional link. Use this strategy keeping in mind two goals.

1. Increasing Engagement & Reach
2. Drive traffic to a decided page.

Some Strategies you ought to follow for your B2B Businesses

We have researched some of the B2B giants’ social media strategies and thus presented you with a peek into some out-of-the-box ideas that you might have.

1. Cross-posting

Cross-posting is one of the most time-saving social media strategies. With smart work, you can make the most of the same content. It’s all about putting the same content across different social media channels to leverage each channel’s specialty, be it engagement, diverse demographics, or several shares. Let’s say IBM.

IBM did an outstanding job of adapting content to different social platforms rather than cross-posting. Here, in this eagle chip image, IBM cleverly put a different caption on each platform to take advantage of their unique algorithm rather than just copy-pasting the same caption across the platform.

2. Post About Team

We regret to be repetitive but we simply can not get over the absolutely marvelous social media strategies IBM designed to showcase their employees’ journey. In this race, adobe is no less about the post of  Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. With social media, they have celebrated the diversity of their employees. With a background of how they embraced their roots & became an authentic part of themselves,

3. Casual Tone

Being a B2B business, it is expected for them to use a formal tone. But the element of surprise never fails to engage your target audience. And here, zoom hasn’t even created the content sharing the post, which is far from being formal. They have garnered more retweets and likes than some of their posts.

4. Story Telling

Using storytelling for employee testimony and customer testimony is the best way to build trust and authority amongst your audience. Like IBM, Squarespace also shared the story and experience of its employees to brand itself as a company that cares, listens, and is inclusive of every culture. In addition, LinkedIn is also a star platform for telling success stories and even failure stories. Brands can also justify the initial failures of creating anything substantial with their failure stories. HubSpot has a strike a chord about the unique story of Airstream with the creative testimonial video. 

5. Think outside the box

This time, FedX thought deep inside the box and came up with a post that no transportation giant has ever done. By sharing a classic PBJ sandwich (Americans are obsessed with it), they want to convey that FedEx is literally omnipresent.

Use of Statistics and infographics

This colorful grid grabs the attention for all the right reasons. Interesting facts and stats about your business put you as a researcher and expert thus an authoritative and trustworthy figure. Other than this people love to read about facts related to personality traits, experiences, and habits that they could relate to. The feeling of belongingness amongst the target audience is an early sign of conversion.

 

Social Media Strategy For B2B These heavy words are often filled with heavy professionalism, but your audience is a certain demographic and purely sophisticated. The silver lining is that you can craft your own strategy without going with the flow. The above businesses have certainly carved their identity and brand voice with their unique stand-alone strategies. As a B2B business, don’t hop on trends; rather, find your business goal and align your strategy based on your story.