Why should B2B companies have a social media strategy?

Notably, 90% of B2B decision-makers conduct the research process on their own. And 55% of B2B buyers find information through social media channels. Once they talk to a salesperson, they’ve already made the choice to try out a free trial or get the demo.

Unfortunately, only 80% of B2B marketers utilize a social media strategy, while the rest say that they’ve written a strategy somewhere.

If you are not taking social media seriously, then you’re missing out on a lot. But how do you gain a social following and stand out? How can you attract customers to your brand?
In this article, we’ll share a few tips on how B2Bs can utilize social media, too. Here’s what you need to know:

1: Leverage Storytelling & Quality Content for B2B Audience Engagement

The common misconception is that B2B brands are boring. At least they think they’re boring because most viral ads are in the industries of entertainment, tech, travel, and food.
Let’s focus on some examples.

Adobe sells apps for creatives like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom. It sounds boring on paper because not many want to see software tutorials and features, especially if they’re not using the product yet.

Yet the brand has managed to get an astounding 893,000 followers on Instagram through user-generated content alone. They announce a theme every month and encourage artists to submit work that fits their theme.

For March 2019, their theme was #WomenCreate. Each post shared the unique story of a female creator or a female character.

IBM creates different kinds of tech, to help the world solve its problems. Sounds boring, right? But marketers at IBM have managed to create an exciting ads

2: Enhancing Branding and Engagement for B2B Lead Generation

Becoming remembered and standing out can be difficult in a world with hundreds of B2B brands.

How do you make sure people remember you after you’ve spent a lot of money on social ads and marketing?

Hubspot has managed to stand out through consistent branding.

Their Instagram feed features quotes and puns relevant to their audience: salespeople, entrepreneurs, and marketers.

Their tweets and Facebook posts promote their content relevant to their B2B audience. They make use of pop culture to seem exciting and relatable.

Another way you can attract leads is to engage with your audience.

Square has attracted more than 53,000 followers thanks to its social strategy of connecting its clients and customers.

They create posts centered on their users’ businesses and tag related businesses. It’s a pretty simple strategy, but all publicity is good publicity.

3. Maximize Results with a Strategic Social Listening Approach

Social listening is the practice of monitoring your users and potential customers on social media platforms.

While the concept of listening to your customers has been around for a while, social listening offers a unique advantage: it allows businesses to market their products naturally and authentically.

With social listening, businesses can directly observe online conversations about their products on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This enables them to join these discussions and offer their solutions where appropriate.

To embark on social listening, businesses can set up Google Alerts to receive notifications whenever their brand is mentioned on the web. Additionally, they can monitor hashtags, keywords, and brand mentions using Twitter’s search feature. For instance, a social media posting app will help you post and even track the analytics for those posts.

There are also free tools available that allow businesses to monitor search terms across various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, WordPress, and Google+. These tools are particularly useful for tracking brand mentions or identifying brand-related keywords.

There there are tools used by professionals such as SocialPilot, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social for comprehensive social media management and optimization.

4: Leveraging LinkedIn for Effective Social Selling

A study found that nine out of every ten B2B companies are using LinkedIn.

This is because LinkedIn is the social media platform for professionals. It’s the ideal site for sharing professional advice, industry insights and job searches.

Sure, you can post relevant industry insights on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook too—but it’ll be seen alongside relationship statuses, personal thoughts, and rants from other users in your network.

LinkedIn is ideal for B2Bs, and one of the most recent perks is LinkedIn Sales Navigator which allows salespeople to get in touch and connect with their potential clients.

It comes with premium search filters that let users find and filter prospects based on industry, geography, company size, and relationship, among many others. It can save you lots of time and effort, especially since LinkedIn found that only half of B2B consumers contacted by sales reps fit the right criteria.

Their inMail functionality lets users get in touch with potential clients or connect with current ones through sending relevant resources like eBooks, white papers and newsletters. This way, your content can pique a client’s interest.

Plus, inMails are a non-intrusive way to contact clients as compared to calls or getting in touch with them via their personal profiles on Instagram and Facebook.

LinkedIn also shows mutual contacts so you can leverage people in your network for an introduction with a client or company, making it a powerful tool for social selling.

Conclusion 

B2B brands are far from boring. What’s Your B2B Social Media Strategy?

You only need to find a unique angle that shows your brand or user’s story. Afterward, attract leads through consistent branding and social media marketing.

Those who utilize social media listening tools can promote their products naturally and authentically. And don’t forget to try out LinkedIn Sales Navigator if you want to target professionals and B2B decision-makers.

How will your B2B company use social media? Let us know in the comments below.