At first glance, social media and B2B seem like two completely different worlds. After all, it’s the end consumer who is active on social media—a target audience that’s not at all relevant to B2B companies.
Nevertheless, there are good reasons to incorporate social media marketing into B2B strategies as well. However, B2B social media marketing requires a different focus and involves different considerations than B2C social media marketing.
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What is social media marketing?
Essentially, social media marketing is a form of online marketing in which social networks serve as the primary marketing tool. The goal is to generate attention or website traffic through relevant channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others.
The primary goal of social media marketing is to create and share content where your target audience—in this case, other businesses—is active, encouraging them to engage with it, thereby increasing the reach and visibility of a brand or company on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, or others.
Or, as social media expert Felix Beilharz said in an interview at the Content Marketing Club put it:
“To me, content marketing and social media marketing are largely one and the same. The two disciplines are very closely intertwined: in social media, I have to create content that meets or stimulates needs and then promote it. This is simply very similar to the day-to-day work of a content marketer.”
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Why should you use social media marketing in B2B?
It is a misconception that social media marketing is only worthwhile for B2C companies.
For B2B entrepreneurs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Xing, and LinkedIn are often just platforms where users share all sorts of things about their lives with the rest of the world—including the products they like or dislike.
And because B2B companies do business only with other firms that primarily use social media as channels for communicating with end consumers, many believe they derive no benefit whatsoever from conducting their own marketing there.
But that's not true!
- Customers on social media: If you don’t engage in B2B social media marketing, you’re leaving the marketing of your products to B2C retailers. But they have little incentive to highlight a specific brand. That’s why social media marketing is a real opportunity for B2B companies to boost sales. These are your products and services—you shouldn’t hand over the marketing to others.
- Business partners on social media: It’s not just consumers who are active on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. Business partners are also present there (using personal profiles). B2B social media marketing can simplify and accelerate communication and collaboration with business partners. According to Facebook, business owners spend twice as much time on social media as the average user.
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Ideas for B2B social media content:
The B2B target audience prefers topics that keep them informed about industry trends and market developments.
In this context, the following work
- Blogs
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Webinars
- Videos
best. They search for information on social media almost as often as they do on search engines.
This should dispel any remaining doubts about B2B social media marketing.
B2B social media marketing should focus on sharing content via social media that helps customers become more productive and successful in their own businesses. This can certainly include a well-written article by a third party.
Content for a wide audience
B2B social media marketing should reach as broad an audience as possible. A good rule of thumb: the more diverse the business partners a company works with, the more varied its social media content should be. However, there should still be a clear common thread to avoid alienating anyone.
By covering a variety of topics, you can foster a sense of connection and belonging among your social media followers.
After all, focusing solely on a specific group of customers could inadvertently exclude others. This might lead them to believe they are unsuitable as partners, even though they are not.
The more people can relate to the topics a B2B company covers on social media, the more effective these efforts are in strengthening existing partnerships and forging new ones.
TIP: Post product updates, guides, and interviews with industry leaders.
Put customers and partners in the spotlight
Showing off a little on social media with your business partners boosts their ego and enhances the trustworthiness and authenticity of a B2B company.
This helps create a positive brand image. Your customers and partners will appreciate that you involve them. It shows them that they matter to you and that you support them.
TIP: Share a partner’s successful blog post (not just) about products from your product range. Repost their social media content. Tag their account.
Stand out with colors and design
B2B social media marketing campaigns often lack originality in their posts, especially when it comes to visuals. Social media is flooded with stock photos, bland designs, and overly serious content.
A unique visual brand identity can help, because it makes you stand out from the sea of cookie-cutter B2B posts.
TIP: Give your social media presence a modern, fresh look.
Showcasing Testimonials and User-Generated Content
Reviews and testimonials are highly effective ways to promote products. They show that real people genuinely like and use your products, and are happy to recommend them to their friends and colleagues.
By featuring these reviews and mentions on your social media timelines, you can reach potential customers who haven’t purchased from your brand yet. At the same time, the users whose reviews you share will feel appreciated. Last but not least, this encourages others to share their testimonials on social media as well.
For you, this means more authentic reviews, which in turn makes it easy to generate user-generated content to repost.
TIP: Regularly share posts on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms—including across different channels—that mention your brand in a positive light.
Inform and educate
Educational content in B2B social media marketing is similar to a content marketing campaign. You provide high-quality content in the hope that the people who see it will become customers.
TIP: Create how-to videos, video guides, and podcasts or video streams about industry news.
Is B2B Social Media Marketing the Same as Content Marketing?
B2B social media marketing is a kind of marketing hybrid in several respects:
On the one hand, the end customer is not the primary target audience, but social media inevitably brings you into contact with them. B2B brands can, so to speak, create an indirect B2C marketing funnel through social media.
On the other hand, B2B social media marketing only works if you start from the right foundation. And that foundation is your content marketing. Only by offering high-quality, interesting, and well-researched content on your blog, in your case studies, eBooks, videos, and podcasts will you generate engagement on social media.
With contentbird, you can research, write, plan, and publish your entire social media and content strategy—from keyword research to social media posts—all in one tool.
