How B2B Companies Should Be Using Social Media

Source: onlinepr-blog

Social media has become an integral part of every modern business, and B2B companies are no exception.

Unfortunately, many B2B companies are still not as active on social media as their B2C counterparts, and when asked why, the answers tend to sound something like this:

• Our consumer base is too narrow

• Selling our products and services requires a longer sales cycle

• B2B sales involve more personal interactions and relationship-building through social media is not as effective

While these points may be true, it’s also true that regardless, B2B companies need to:

• Reach and engage their target audience

• Communicate the benefits of their business offer

• Track the effectiveness of their marketing efforts

So, what’s the best way for B2B companies to go about this? 

Creating and maintaining a strong social media presence is essential to reaching potential clients and business partners, even in the B2B space. 

If you're not quite sure how to start with social media, this article is for you. We'll explain how B2B companies can effectively use social media to drive business growth and establish themselves as industry leaders.

Why Is Social Media Important For B2B Companies?

There are several reasons why social media is important for B2B companies. 

First and foremost, our society is largely run by social media. This means that if you want to reach a wider audience and build brand awareness, you’ll need to establish a strong social media presence. 

What does that entail? If you run a B2B brand, you should strive to consistently create quality and engaging content that showcases your expertise in the industry.

Apart from that, social media platforms also provide a space for B2B companies to interact with both their current and potential business partners. 

You can use these interactions to gather valuable insights about your target audience and strengthen relationships with them. 

Lastly, social media can help your B2B company drive traffic and leads to your website. 

How? Through sharing links to your website and blog posts on your social media, you can attract potential partners to your site. Once on your site, a potential partner will be able to explore what you have to offer in greater detail, and determine whether they’d be a good fit for your brand.

Which Social Media Platforms Should B2B Companies Be Using?

If you’re struggling to decide which social media platforms to use, consider the following factors:

• Where do you have the biggest potential to reach your target audience?

• What is the cost of branding on each of these platforms?

• What are your marketing goals?

LinkedIn is currently considered a go-to platform for B2B companies.

This social media platform has a large user base of business professionals, and it is specifically designed for networking and sharing content with potential clients and partners. 

However, advertising on LinkedIn is generally more expensive compared to other platforms. This means that companies with restrictive budgets need to weigh the cost of LinkedIn advertising against the potential benefits of reaching a highly targeted audience.

Source: statista

You also have platforms like Facebook and Twitter. 

These two platforms are great for sharing quick industry updates and engaging with your followers in a more personal way. 

Moreover, Twitter and Facebook offer more cost-effective advertising space, with Twitter’s average advertising cost (CPC) coming down to $0.38 per click and Facebook’s average CPC coming down to $0.97. As for LinkedIn, the average CPC is $5.26.

The downside of these platforms? They may not be as effective at reaching a specifically B2B audience.

What makes LinkedIn more effective at reaching a B2B audience is, for the most part, its professional focus. 

This means that LinkedIn is more likely to be used by professionals and decision-makers, while Twitter and Facebook are more general social media platforms, used by a wide range of people, for a variety of purposes. 

Top 5 Tips For Using Social Media Effectively

After you decide which social media platform or platforms to utilize for your B2B company, the next step is to put a strategy in place. Here are our top five tips to help you create and maintain a social media presence.

1. Track key metrics to gain insights into your audience

Defining your goals and your target audience before you start using social media is a key part of creating personalized content. 

However, you can also use social media analytics to gain even more insights into your audience. Looking at key metrics will tell you the current demographic of your followers and determine what content they’re most interested in. This way, you can get a better glimpse into who your audience is, how they behave, and what they connect to.

These insights will in turn help you craft a strategy that delivers measurable results.

2. Plan out your social media content in advance

We’ve established that having a strong social media presence includes creating high-quality content that’s relevant to your audience.

However, if you want to establish yourself as a market leader and generate more leads as a result, you’ll need to do a lot more than just create content.

You’ll need to create quality content consistently, and this requires planning and creativity.

What’s the best way to organize this?

Content calendars!

Content calendars can help you plan out your social media posts in advance and ensure that you stay organized without experiencing last-minute panic. They can also help you keep track of different types of content, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, industry news, and more.

Expert tip: If you’re struggling with ideas for content generation, you can use social media to share user-generated content around your brand or to find inspiration in what your audience is saying about you.

3. Engage your followers through visuals

Visual content, such as eye-catching images and videos, is more likely to engage your followers and increase the reach of your posts. This makes incorporating them into your social media strategy something worth exploring.

For example, social media platforms are great for sharing images that showcase the features and benefits of your products or services. 

If you’re a service-based company, you can help your potential clients better understand how your offer can solve their problems. 

How? Through infographics and interactive video content that demonstrates your business offer. 

You can also use visuals to showcase the people and processes behind your business, which can help humanize your brand and build trust with your potential partners.

4. Engage with your audience and your business partners

Social media is intended to be used for two-way conversations. That means that you should use it to regularly engage with your followers and develop relationships with business partners.

If people are leaving comments on your social media posts or sending you messages regarding your business, respond to them in a timely and professional manner.

If your clients are not leaving feedback, reach out and ask them to write a testimonial. If they’re unhappy with the way you’ve handled a situation, offer them support and address their complaints.

Participating in relevant conversations, sharing thought leadership content, and being a part of industry-specific groups are all ways to engage with your audience and network with other professionals on social media.

5. Use relevant hashtags in your social media posts

With a bit of research, you can increase the visibility of your social media posts by using the right industry- or topic-related hashtags in them.

Besides providing an opportunity for potential clients to easily discover your company, hashtags – particularly branded hashtags – can also help social media users engage with your content more conveniently.

Whichever hashtags you opt for, keep them authentic and relevant to your company. 

And remember that just as the right hashtags can attract a new audience to your social media, hashtag overkill can turn them off. So, steer clear of spam!

Case Studies: How Successful B2B Companies Are Using Social Media

1. HubSpot and LinkedIn

HubSpot is an example of a B2B software company that successfully leveraged LinkedIn for the growth of its business.

After recognizing that their potential clients were on LinkedIn, HubSpot created a company page on this social media platform and started posting regular updates about their products, services, and industry news.

Then, with the use of LinkedIn’s sponsored content feature, HubSpot decided to target its audience through personalized advertisements.

HubSpot also used LinkedIn’s advanced search feature to personally reach out to potential clients through messaging, where they would introduce their company and the benefits of their services.

Finally, in an effort to improve direct engagement with potential clients, HubSpot established LinkedIn groups for specific industries and invited clients to join in order to demonstrate their expertise in each of the fields.

Using LinkedIn, HubSpot was able to:

• Connect with potential clients and build strong relationships with them

• Establish itself as an industry thought leader

• Increase brand awareness

2. McKinsey & Company and Twitter

McKinsey & Company is a B2B global management consulting firm with a Twitter presence that is hard to miss.

Much like HubSpot did with LinkedIn, the company utilized Twitter to post regular thought leadership content and find potential clients to engage with.

They did this through Twitter’s advanced search feature and hashtags.

Another thing McKinsey has been vocal about is how useful Twitter is for identifying which follower-generated messages to respond to in order to:

• Increase social media engagement;

• Efficiently manage a reputation crisis; and

• Provide stellar customer service.

In the past, the company has relied on brief, prompt and friendly responses to customer feedback as a way of showing that they care about them and resolving their issues efficiently.

3. Caterpillar Inc. and Facebook

Caterpillar Inc. is a global N2N manufacturer of industrial equipment for mining, construction, and forestry. 

If you visit their Facebook page, you’ll see that they’re quite active and that their social media posts have high engagement.

In addition to using the same strategies as HubSpot and McKinsey & Company are using on LinkedIn and Twitter, Caterpillar Inc. is also using Facebook's events feature to promote webinars and other events related to their products and services. 

This social media strategy has helped them generate interest and leads from potential clients.

Key Takeaways On B2B Social Media Presence

Social media is an important marketing tool for B2B companies, as it can help them reach and engage with their target audience in a cost-effective and measurable way. 

Some key takeaways for effectively using social media as a B2B company include:

• Identifying the right social media platforms for your target audience

• Developing a personalized content strategy and creating a regular editorial calendar

• Using social media to build relationships with potential clients and partners

• Measuring the success of social media efforts by tracking analytics 

Authors Bio

Sarah Watson is an economist and content writer currently employed with DigitalStrategyOne. She’s a passionate blogger expressing herself through her creative and informative articles about online marketing strategies.