Managing Success for B2B Social Media Marketing

Managing Success for B2B Social Media Marketing

Link: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/b2b-social-media-marketing/

While it’s true that many of the top brands leveraging social media operate in the B2C segment (such as Nike, Starbucks, and Applebee’s), it doesn’t mean that B2B companies don’t have a place in the social media arena. 

In terms of platforms used, 65% B2B players use LinkedIn to acquire customers, 55% use blogging, 43% use Facebook and 40% use twitter.

The problem that many B2B companies often face is: a lack of knowledge and an awareness of social media or not having the right staff/resources to run their social media campaigns.

For successful social media marketing, a B2B company needs to take a strategic approach and execute their campaign with precision. This can be done through 3 steps:

1. Define clear marketing objectives: Having measurable goals that are relevant to the big or small business will help create a winning B2B social media marketing strategy. You need to ensure that each goal set is smart and measurable in nature so that gauging success becomes simpler, and more scientific. Build a social media plan with targets and timelines to generate targeted leads, build a reputable brand and offer online customer service.

2. Identify the target audience: Social media is made up of diverse people, so not everybody is going to be interested in the content you share. Which is why it’s important to reach out to an audience that connects to you and your content. You want businesses who pay attention and listen to your advice. Being in the B2B segment, this not only helps you build a list of followers, but also lets you create real authority and a positive brand in your niche. By adding more value to your social media content, you will slowly but steadily differentiate your business from other companies that are not putting the effort in B2B social media marketing. Know your priorities, analyze competitors and their social media strategy, decide on what content to share and create and assign personas in a structural manner.

3. Choose the right social media channels: Every social media network is different. And the people that use it have different interests and priorities. When your B2B company experiments with social media marketing, it’s important to understand the importance of selecting the right social media platform. Effectiveness ratings for B2B platforms is as follow: LinkedIn 66%, Twitter 55%, YouTube 51%, SlideShare 41%, Facebook 30%, Instagram 22%, Pinterest 20%.