Social Media For B2B
B2B stands for business-to-business. B2B social media marketing uses social channels to market products or services to business clients and prospects. B2B marketers have to think more strategically to reach business decision makers, then they nurture relationships on social media platforms that can lead to large purchase agreements. Here are some tips to help you with your next B2B social media marketing campaign.
What is B2B social media marketing?
B2B social media marketing is a great tool for both small businesses and large corporations to use. Social media allows business owners to access potential clients and business decision makers on a personal level, unlike traditional advertising.
When done correctly, social media will help boost brand awareness, increase traffic to your website and prompt conversions by providing helpful and interesting content that entices customers. Marketing yourself through social media channels allows you to create relationships with prospects as well as turn them into customers.
You have to earn your customer's trust before they will engage with you. You can do that by providing useful information and thought-provoking content creation.
Write articles that are relevant and interesting to your target audience and also include links to your social media channels so it is easy for them to follow you or connect with you on other social media platforms.
Keep in mind, however, not all of your prospects want constant updates via social media, so it is a good idea to encourage them to connect with you elsewhere as well.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all effective social media platforms for B2B social media marketing. Each of these social media platforms offers some kind of advertising product that you can use to help your business grow.
Whether you choose to go with sponsored posts, Facebook ads or a display ad campaign, it's important to follow a consistent marketing strategy and take advantage of tools like Facebook lookalike audiences, search engine marketing, Facebook groups or Twitter targeting to narrow down your audience as much as possible.
You'll also want to work with a professional social media marketing company in order to maximize results and track performance along the way.
Social Media - Why should I care?
Businesses are shifting more marketing resources to social media campaigns.
If you’re a business owner, it doesn’t matter if your company sells commercial jet engines or hand-blown glass balls.
The most important question facing your business is: How can I best reach my target customers?
With social media now a driving force in marketing and sales, every business has to adapt its strategies to include a strong social component.
Social media platforms are a source of valuable market intelligence. With social media listening tools, you can gather valuable information about what your target audience is talking about and how they feel about various brands, products and services.
Social data collection can even reveal customer pain points or areas where customers are seeking improvement—not only in products or services, but also in sales processes and company policies.
All your prospects are already on LinkedIn. Your business can use their interest in a particular industry to make direct and relevant connections with decision-makers.
Your prospects aren’t just there to build their own professional reputations—they’re there for business purposes as well.
They want to research, understand and engage with companies like yours. After all, they’re also trying to find ways to better reach, serve and sell to your target audience!
Social media is where they go. Be there too, so you can show them why they should care about you too!
How do I start?
Social media is a great way to reach prospects, but how do you know where to start?
First things first: create a social media marketing plan.
Next, think about your target audience. Who are your customers and potential customers?
What topics interest them? What are their pain points?
Once you’ve identified who you want to reach and what you want to say, it’s time to create content.
How to create a B2B marketing strategy?
An effective social media strategy is simply a plan that defines your goals and how you intend to achieve them. To start crafting your social media marketing strategy, first create a profile for your business and take time to write about who you are and what you do.
Next, time for content creation!
Begin creating content that speaks directly to your target audience and search engines at the same time, making sure not to be salesy or overly promotional. This can include things like FAQs, white papers, and contests with prizes.
You should also interact regularly with customers or prospects on social media in order to engage them online; remember that it takes time for relationships to form so be patient as you build relationships over time.
The best way to learn what other companies are doing is to keep a close eye on successful brands and how they use social media.
Look at how they engage with customers on social media, what type of content they share, and how they talk about their products or services.
You can also see what types of content resonate with your target audience. Social media listening tools like BuzzSumo or Brand24 let you monitor social media activity around certain topics so you know when it’s most effective to post new content that speaks directly to customer needs.
What is a social media marketing plan?
An effective social marketing plan for your business must include tactics, strategies and measurement. There are so many channels, platforms and tools that it can be overwhelming to know where to start.
A social media marketing plan is more than a simple list of tasks; it's a carefully thought-out strategy that will help you achieve your goals.
How do you know where to start? Social media marketing can be overwhelming, especially if you're new to social channels. You may be tempted to build a social media presence on every social media platform. Resist that urge!
Every business has different needs, so there's no one-size-fits-all approach for building your social media marketing strategy.
B2B Social Media: Who is your target audience?
Your target audience is made up of people who fall into your primary and secondary buyer personas. They have been profiled, they have been studied and they know what they want.
In short, though – you will be able to speak more clearly about your ideal clients (and why it’s important to speak with them) when you know who exactly those individuals are in terms of their specific needs and wants within your market or niche.
This information will also help you craft more personalized content for each persona that goes beyond demographic and general interest data alone.
What are their pain points?
If you understand their issues your prospects are facing and can speak directly to them—using their language, even - you’ll earn your business much more respect from business decision makers.
Make sure to address those pain points in your social media marketing efforts. Provide content on topics they care about and engage with them where they are – whether that’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or another channel – so they don’t have to go searching for you.
But if marketing and sales work together, they can deliver content that addresses a prospect’s pain points while nurturing an interest in your product or service.
If you are on a tight budget, that means finding tools that allow you to create and distribute your own content without spending money on external resources.
Your prospects want quick access to actionable tips and don’t want to hear about how wonderful your company is – focus on providing information that educates them on their issues and how you can solve them.
Make sure to link back to helpful resources whenever possible, such as customer support articles or videos. This will help position your brand as a source of valuable information rather than just another seller trying to push its products onto professionals.
Use social media listening tools to better understand your prospects and customers. That will give you a good sense of what they are talking about, what their pain points are, and how you can help solve them.
If a new competitor enters your market, pay attention to how customers react online. See if they’re actively engaging with that business on social media or if they seem turned off by its presence.
All of these insights will help you focus your efforts more effectively in targeting professionals on social media as well as prospective customers who need your solutions but aren’t yet ready to buy.
What is content marketing?
The goal of content marketing is to create great content that attracts an audience. Successful content marketers research target markets and deliver relevant, helpful information in a way that builds relationships.
Content marketing is a form of marketing that uses various channels to distribute online content in order to gain customers for a product or service.
This includes creating blogs, videos, e-books and more that attract an audience through quality content. Successful sales and marketing teams research target markets and deliver relevant, helpful information in a way that builds relationships.
The process of researching target markets, creating and distributing content is ongoing; you should never consider it done once you have your first piece of content and other valuable resources up on your website.
If you do, chances are it won’t bring in as many leads as you might hope because it’s not going to fit within each viewer’s specific needs.
The best tips for creating successful content marketing material include: knowing your target market, understanding how to create a value proposition and using stories to help humanize your business.
When you know what kind of information your target audience is looking for, it’s easier to deliver useful information and educational content and be seen as an expert in your field.
Remember that when you're working on content marketing materials you’re not just selling a product or service, but rather selling yourself as someone who can help others solve their problems or achieve their goals.
Focus on being genuine by sharing real-life examples and data, not just trying to push a sale.
How do I engage my target audience on social media?
Before you start to build your marketing plan, take a moment to consider how your target audience is going to use social media.
What are their needs and how are they likely to communicate in a way that’s different from other types of channels?
It’s important to understand your audience before you begin, so you can create a more effective strategy for engaging them.
If you’re targeting people who have spent years working in their field, have their own company and make decisions based on data rather than gut feelings, then LinkedIn might be better suited for building relationships.
If you’re looking at reaching recent college graduates who are trying out new career paths, Facebook may be more appropriate.
Understanding your audience will help guide where you should put time and energy into developing these relationships.
Creating valuable and relevant social media posts that genuinely help your audience is one of your best opportunities to get noticed and build connections. Engaging with others on social media doesn’t have to be difficult.
It’s important to remember that your primary goal is to provide value, not just make sales or push promotions. Establishing yourself as a trusted source of helpful information can quickly establish you as an authority in your industry.
This is particularly effective if you also align yourself with companies and brands with which they already associate a high level of trust.
How to measure results of B2B social media?
The key to marketing on social media platforms is having a good strategy. This means knowing your audience, having goals and objectives, segmenting your market by industry and persona, creating relevant content, measuring what works and what doesn’t.
All of these things will fall into place when you begin to measure results. You can have a perfect social strategy but if you don’t measure it you won’t know if it is effective or not.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is one of the most powerful analytics tools available for marketers. It provides valuable data about your site traffic and market potential, including demographic information and advertising insights.
Analytics can help you learn more about your audience and what content they want to read on your site or share with their friends. When it comes to your business, using analytics can boost productivity by helping you track how well social media ads are working for you and where visitors are coming from.
It's best to use analytics from day one when creating a new site, so you know what strategies work well for attracting new visitors as soon as possible. Showing on top of Google search results is great way of creating future success stories.
The quicker you see results, the faster you'll be able to adjust and optimize your social media strategy if necessary.
How to measure Facebook?
The first way to measure Facebook effectiveness is by focusing on shares, likes and comments. But there's more - Facebook offers an entire suite of social media analytics including cost per click, cost per lead and many, many more.
As a social media marketer you should know that while social media engagement is important, there are more important metrics to watch for in every social media campaign.
The Facebook metrics that you need to pay attention to are: total reach, cost per impression and cost per click. Reach is how many people have seen your content (paid + organic) while Impressions refers to how many times people have seen your content in their newsfeed.
FAQs
Which social media is best for B2B?
Every social media platform has its unique use case and strengths. In social selling you should focus on where your target audience spends their time—and you can determine that by researching how, when, and why they interact with each channel.
Few examples: LinkedIn and LinkedIn groups are best for professional networking and information sharing; Twitter is perfect for broadcasting industry news; Twitter provides a range of valuable features (like helping you with thought leadership) but is perhaps best suited to one-to-one interactions.
How social media is beneficial for B2B business?
Social media has a number of benefits for B2B businesses. It is especially useful to help you develop brand awareness and reach potential customers.
You can also use social media to engage with customers, nurture leads, provide customer support and feedback from clients.
When used properly, social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for increasing revenue and growing your business!
Why digital marketing is important for B2B?
Digital marketing is a relatively new channel for business-to-business marketers. As more companies shift budgets to digital from traditional media, we can expect even more dollars will be spent on social media and other digital channels.
But why is digital so important? Here are some reasons: Digital offers better ROI. Paid social ads and retargeting campaigns drive traffic to your website, helping you get leads, nurture prospects, convert sales leads into buyers and keep customers happy with email marketing.
All of these actions help you achieve your lead generation goals at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. Less effort for more results is what digital offers for business-to-business marketers
How do you market B2B on social media?
The same way you do for B2C - with a plan! Identify which social channels will be most effective for your business, and develop a social media strategy that aligns with your overall marketing plan.
Depending on your product or service, different social networks may be more or less effective. If you're not sure where to start, ask yourself: Which social media is already used by people in my target market? Which medium has proven itself as an effective marketing channel?
Do I have time to dedicate to developing a presence on a network that doesn't give me quick results?
Where can I reach customers who are interested in what I'm selling right now? (Not tomorrow.)
Remember: Even if you identify a powerful strategy today, change might be coming soon.
Which social media is popular for B2B marketing?
Different social media platforms work for different industries. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other platforms are used for very specific purposes in marketing. Each industry has a platform that works best for it.
For example, YouTube is popular among all industries because of its video feature. Because more people are turning to mobile devices to access social media, it’s important to note which channels use apps (such as Facebook or Twitter) or have an optimized mobile app so users can easily read and access your content on a smaller screen.
When planning your content strategy, decide which outlets you’ll use based on who you want to reach and what type of communication will resonate with them best.
Is Facebook a B2B or B2C?
Facebook is a social network and therefore can be used by both B2C and B2B marketers. However, some argue that because it has less business-related features than LinkedIn or other social networks, it's more suited for B2C marketers.
The fact is that Facebook does have a lot of features geared toward businesses and professionals. In fact, one-fifth of all U.S. companies with a web presence maintain an active company page on Facebook, according to research firm eMarketer.
If you're going after B2B leads with your social media marketing strategy then consider Facebook as an option (along with LinkedIn).
Here are three reasons why:
Access - More people go onto Facebook every day than any other social network. By default, your business appears in search results and in new user's friend lists when they join.
You can also pay for targeted advertising or boost posts so they reach even more people. With over 2 billion members there should be no shortage of prospects ready to engage with your brand on FB..
Easy Set Up - Setting up a profile for your brand on FB only takes a few minutes. Once you're set up all you have to do is post updates about your products and services.
People who are interested will see these updates in their newsfeeds. If you want people to like or follow your company's page you simply set that option when creating it.
Posting too frequently is something that you want to avoid though since it can annoy some users and damage your company's reputation online.
Multi-channel benefits - It’s easy for users who like your FB page to check out more about what your company has to offer by clicking on links that appear below each post. This increases traffic to your website without requiring extra work on your part.
Don't Like FB?
No Problem - There are dozens of other social networks out there competing for users' attention. If one network doesn't work for your business then try another!
One example is LinkedIn, a professional networking social platform with tools such as groups where individuals can connect with similar interests and companies can market their products directly to professionals in specific fields.