How To Rescue Your B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy

Business to Business (B2B) companies have always avoided social media platforms while Business to Customer (B2C) companies have always benefited from them.

It is not like that there is no social media presence for B2B companies, it is that they are very scarce. B2B companies tend to rely on more traditional forms of gathering customers, like cold calling or attending company gatherings to pitch their ideas.

According to B2B practitioners, it is easier to stick to traditional practices then shift to new ones, which raises the question. Can B2B companies use social media platforms to grow their business?

Yes, they definitely can use the potential of these marketing platforms to their advantage. There are quite a handful of examples of such firms like IBM, Intel, and Cisco all have a presence on major social media platforms.

So why are not more B2B companies shifting their attention to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter? That is they lack the knowledge to create an efficient digital marketing strategy for social media platforms.

Making an efficient strategy and getting excellent results is not rocket science, your firm can even get better results than B2C companies. So, let us get started on saving your B2B social media marketing strategy.

Getting Started

Before we get to the steps to saving your social media strategy, a company should know what they are trying to achieve. Whether you are trying to increase your reach, generate more leads, trying to spread brand awareness, or generating more traffic for your website, your objectives should be clear. A company should know the matrices on which these strategies rely, for example, if your goal is to measure leads for your company then your metrics are:

1. Number of clicks
2. New lead generating from social media
3. Conversion of said leads

Where on the other hand if your goal is to evaluate and increase your reach then you should focus on:

1. Organic reach
2. Paid reach
3. Impressions
4. Follower count
5. Engagement

With that being said, here are a few steps that your company should follow to improve their social media presence.

Present an Interesting Angle

The first step for every successful strategy is to identify the target audience, content should be according to what the audience wants. According to some people B2C customers have it easier when designing a strategy for their business but now B2B companies are changing the norm.

You can do the same for your company by following in their footsteps, start by analyzing your target audience, produce engaging content, not just product promotion. You can start by asking yourself that would you view this content if you were not their employee? It will act as a good indicator of whether your content is audience-centric or not.

Keep an Eye on Your Competitors

Every business keeps an eye on their business competitors and if you are starting new in a field which your competitors are familiar with. It is a good idea to see what they are doing, start by looking at the strategies that they are implementing.

The simplest way for this is to visit the company’s website and from there check their social media accounts, this will give the idea of the strategies that they are investing in to generate leads and convert them into potential customers.

Humanize Your Company

Humanizing business is the most important part of the digital growth boost for Business to Business companies. Audiences like to interact with content that represents the human aspect of the business.

This is important because it will make your employees the torchbearers of your brand, this will boost your business and provide leverage with employee advocacy. You can humanize your brand by using the following tips:

1. When writing, use the first-person tone
2. Use people from your staff with their real names
3. Find the right person to handle your accounts
4. Engage with people using people from your company

Get the Right Person

If this is your first time creating a strategy for digital marketing, it would be wise to ask someone for help. People with experience would help guide you in the right direction because for someone with little to no experience it could feel like swimming in open seas.

Pushing social media management to people to do in their free time would result in disaster, it would be wise to hire a freelancer or someone with enough industry knowledge to spearhead this initiative of yours.

Use Linkedin as Leverage

Linkedin is a social networking platform for professionals, it is better than Facebook or Twitter as you would not find personal posts. Instead, Linkedin focuses on people working or are looking for jobs, you could benefit from this by posting about your business on Linkedin. According to a survey, nearly 97% of B2B companies use Linkedin to promote their businesses.

Create Your Brand Personality

The way you market your content and design your strategies represent your brand, this representation of your business builds an image in your customer’s mind. This representation of yours should be original and should remain consistent and coherent over the years.

You could choose from a variety of options for your tone like formal, casual, or even humorous like Wendy’s Twitter account. Whatever you do should represent your brand as it would help your business to be distinguished from others. If you have a social media presence and it is not working for then you should reconsider your preferences and start again with something new.

Timing is Key

The main theme behind creating a great social media presence is timing. Perfect content at the right time makes or breaks the deal as there is a “best time to post” on social media. Social media platforms have algorithms that show content to viewers, so if your content is targeted to a specific group of people from a specific part of the world.

It would stupid to post when those people are indisposed, for example when they are sleeping. To find the right time, you would have to make use of statistics. Try experimenting by posting at different times during day and night and use statistics to find the best time for yourself.

Conclusion

B2C companies have been using social media platforms to attract new customers for quite a while and now B2B companies have started to do so as well. Create interesting and engaging content for your target audience, find the right time to post, and choose the right people to help you on your way to success. Use social media platforms to strengthen your business.