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Grow faster in 2023 with an effective B2B social media strategy. Get our best strategies and complete guide for paid and organic social media (make coffee first, it’s a long one).
Social media is no longer optional for B2B companies. With buyers now spending more and more time researching online before ever contacting sales, a strategic presence on major social platforms is critical for driving awareness, generating leads, and building customer relationships.
However, many B2B companies still struggle with social media marketing. They aren’t sure where to focus their efforts, how to create content that resonates, and how to measure success.
That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive guide to building an effective B2B social media marketing strategy in 2023.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- Key social media trends and platforms shaping B2B marketing today
- A step-by-step framework for developing your strategy
- In-depth social media tactics for awareness, lead generation, and customer engagement
- Content strategies and best practices for creating compelling social content
- Ways to measure your performance and optimize efforts over time
- Real examples and case studies from leading B2B brands
Whether you’re new to social media marketing or looking to take your existing efforts to the next level, this guide will give you a blueprint for B2B social media success in 2023.
Let’s get started!
What is effective B2B social media marketing?
Definition of B2B social media marketing
B2B social media marketing refers to the use of major social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and others to reach and engage with B2B buyers, generate leads, and build brand awareness for B2B companies.
Unlike B2C social media marketing which often focuses on engagement and brand-building, B2B social media is highly targeted on the buyer’s journey and helping drive measurable business results.
How it differs from B2C social media marketing
There are a few key differences between B2B and B2C social media marketing:
- B2B social media focuses on a very targeted, professional audience vs. broader consumer base for B2C
- The buyer’s journey is longer and more complex for B2B, so content and engagement needs to inform and nurture prospects over time
- Paid advertising and lead generation are larger components of B2B social vs. B2C’s branding focus
- LinkedIn is the core B2B social platform, while B2C uses a mix like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
- Engagement is focused on thought leadership, education and problem-solving vs. entertainment in B2C
Overview of major B2B social platforms
The top social media platforms for B2B include:
- LinkedIn – The leading B2B platform. Enables targeted paid ads, sponsored content, recruiting, lead gen forms, and building authority
- Twitter – For real-time engagement, thought leadership and connecting with influencers
- Facebook – B2B pages for some awareness building, community and lead gen
- YouTube – Hosting video tutorials, webinars, and demos to nurture prospects
- Instagram – B2B is limited but can show company culture and products visually
B2B marketers getting started today will likely want to focus efforts on optimizing their company’s LinkedIn presence with a mix of engaging organic content and paid promotion.
Top B2B Brand and Social Media Marketing Trends in 2023
Rise of LinkedIn as critical B2B platform
LinkedIn continues to grow as the dominant B2B social media platform. With over 740 million members, targeted ads platform, and lead gen capabilities, LinkedIn is a must for B2B brands today.
B2B companies should focus on optimizing their Company Page, employee profiles, Showcase Pages, and posting engaging content. Sponsored content, ads and InMail can all generate leads.
Thought leadership and content marketing
Thought leadership builds authority and trust. Developing whitepapers, reports, videos and other educational content and promoting it through social media is key for B2B brands in 2023.
Long-form, search-optimized content combined with snackable social content earns reach and engagement.
- Video content – tutorials, demos, webinars
Video remains a high-performing content type. From quick how-to videos to live/recorded webinars, video helps b2b companies explain products, instruct customers and build awareness.
- Influencer marketing with industry experts
Partnering with credible industry experts and leveraging employee advocates expands B2B social media reach. This lends third-party validation and taps into new audiences.
- Live video and events
Live streaming video, AMAs, and virtual events bring authenticity and immediacy that audiences love. B2B brands should incorporate more interactive live content.
- Targeted paid social advertising
With organic social reach declining, paid social is crucial. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube ads can be finely targeted to relevant B2B audiences to boost visibility.
B2B marketers should keep these major trends top of mind when mapping out their 2023 social strategies for maximum impact and results.
How to Build a effective B2B Social Media Strategy – The Framework
Align goals with business objectives
Having clear goals aligned to business KPIs is crucial for an effective B2B social media strategy. Common goals include:
- Awareness – Increase brand visibility and recognition among target b2b audience
- Lead generation – Convert social followers into marketing qualified leads
- Customer engagement – Build relationships, provide value, support, interact with current customers
- Thought leadership – Establish expertise and credibility in your industry
Know your audience
Develop detailed buyer personas and map out your target audience’s journey to understand pain points and inform content.
- Outline demographic info, challenges, and goals for each key persona
- Identify touchpoints and key needs/questions in awareness, consideration, decision stages
Understand the competition
Analyze what other brands in your space are doing across social channels. Identify strengths you can emulate and gaps you can fill with unique positioning.
- Competitor social media audit – evaluate types of content, engagement, followers etc.
Create a content calendar and content library
Plan out the types of educational, valuable content you will create and share on social media. Develop assets like posts, videos, and images that align to stages of the buyer’s journey.
- Mix of educational, thought leadership, testimonials, promotional content
- Interactive formats like polls, surveys, live video
Analyze and refine
Continuously analyze your social media performance and refine efforts. Track progress against KPIs and optimize activities over time.
- Key metrics – followers, engagement, leads, traffic, conversions attributed to social
- Compare to benchmarks and past performance
- Adjust content mix, cadence, targeting and platforms
B2B social media best practices
Choosing the right channels
- Audit where your buyers and competitors are active to identify 2-3 priority social platforms
- Focus on optimizing LinkedIn presence for most B2B companies
- Consider content types and goals – Twitter for real-time, events on Facebook etc.
Optimizing profiles and messaging
- Complete and optimize Company Page on each platform
- Ensure consistent branding and messaging across social channels
- Develop and share company vision, values, and unique positioning
- Build out employees’ profiles to tap into their networks
Engaging and converting followers into leads
- Share valuable content – industry insights, thought leadership
- Respond to comments and questions – be helpful and human
- Run nurturing campaigns – guides, assessments, webinars etc. to convert followers
- Promote lead gen offers and gated assets
- Retarget engaged visitors across social and web
Integrating with other marketing initiatives
- Cross-promote new blog posts, ebooks, email campaigns
- Amplify webinars, events and promotions through social
- Coordinate paid search and social efforts for retargeting
- Share customer testimonials and user-generated content
- Leverage employees as brand advocates
Following these best practices will help B2B brands get the most value from their social media marketing efforts and see better ROI.
15 Best Social Media Tactics for B2B Lead Generation
Hosting Twitter chats or AMAs
- Set up discussion on hot industry topic or with leadership team. Promote chat and share insights.
Using LinkedIn ads and sponsored content
- Target relevant buyers with Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Text Ads. Send them to landing pages, gated offers.
Joining and engaging in LinkedIn Groups
- Join Groups your audience is in. Share expertise and content. Groups enable targeting niche audiences.
Promoting new blog content and offers
- Share posts on multiple channels. Use promo images/videos. Include strong calls-to-action.
Contests and giveaways
- Run sweepstakes or giveaways (ebook, event pass) in exchange for lead gen form entries.
Hashtag campaigns
- Build awareness of industry topics, events and your brand with relevant hashtags.
Paid social ads (Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Beyond LinkedIn, leverage highly targeted Facebook/Instagram ads to reach and retarget buyers.
Retargeting
- Use pixels to track site visitors and target them with ads on social as they move through funnel.
Live video
- Stream AMAs, Q&As, events. Create urgency to attend and interact.
Influencer collaborations
- Partner with key voices to tap into their audience and credibility.
Content upgrades
- Offer more in-depth content like ebooks and guides in exchange for lead details.
Lead gen landing pages
- Create targeted landing pages that motivate converting visitors into leads.
Chatbots
- Use chatbots on website and messaging apps to connect prospects to conversion points.
Remarketing
- Target ads to users who engaged but didn’t convert, bringing them back.
Webinars
- Host live or on-demand webinars with valuable info. Gate replay with form.
Content Strategy For B2B Social Media
Educational content
- How-to guides, ebooks, case studies, whitepapers, videos, webinars
- Address common pain points, questions from each buyer persona
Thought leadership
- Share insights, data and trends from your industry research
- Expert perspectives on news/innovations in your space
Industry news and insights
- Commentary on news, analysis of impacts, key takeaways for audience
Behind the scenes and fun brand content
- Photos/videos showcasing company culture and community
- Glimpses at products, facilities, employees
Promoting new content offers
- Share ebooks, guides, blog posts across social channels
- Eye-catching graphics and captions
Infographics, photos, videos
- Visual assets to explain data, concepts, ideas in engaging formats
Curating relevant third-party contents
- Share and discuss other companies’ or influencers’ content of interest
An effective B2B social media content strategy balances educational assets, thought leadership, and fun brand-focused content.
The key is providing ongoing value for followers at different stages to build relationships and ultimately convert them into leads and customers.
7 B2B social media best practice traps to avoid (and how to get it right)
- Spreading efforts too thin vs. focusing channels
Don’t spread yourself too thin across every platform. Audit where your audience is active and focus on 1-3 channels.
- Putting out irrelevant content vs. strategic content
Create content tailored to interests/needs of each buyer persona. Align to their journey, not just your products.
- No measuring and tracking vs. in-depth analytics
Track engagement, leads, conversions on each channel. Compare to benchmarks and optimize based on insights.
- Ignoring negative comments vs. actively engaging
Monitor mentions and respond promptly to negative comments. Provide helpful info and solutions.
- Self-promotional vs. valuable engagement
The 80/20 rule – only 20% of posts should directly promote your brand. The rest should share valuable insights.
- Inconsistent posting vs. structured content calendar
Plan out content across platforms and stick to a consistent calendar. Helpful tools like Hootsuite can schedule posts.
- No paid efforts vs. integrated paid tactics
With declining organic reach, carefully target paid ads and sponsorships to complement organic activity.
Avoiding these common social media pitfalls will help B2B companies see better results from their social media marketing efforts.
Avoiding these common social media pitfalls will help B2B companies see better results from their social media marketing efforts.
Setting B2B Social Media Budgets & Measuring B2B Social Media ROI
- Budget considerations by channel – LinkedIn and targeted paid ads may warrant more budget vs. organic posting.
- Low-cost ways to boost efforts – Employee advocacy, influencer collaborations, optmizing content.
- Metrics for each channel – Followers, engagement, clicks, leads, traffic, conversions.
- Benchmarking progress over time – Compare metrics month-over-month and YoY to track growth.
- Tracking website traffic, conversions from social – UTM campaign tracking, analytics integration.
- Correlating social KPIs to business KPIs – Engagement to leads to revenue. Measure impact on bottom line.
- Set realistic budgets based on costs for content, ads, and teams. Leverage free tactics like employee advocacy.
- Analyze key metrics on a monthly basis and chart progress over time. Optimize activities that drive top-funnel and bottom-funnel results.
- Prove the ROI of B2B social efforts by linking engagement to leads and ultimately revenue. Continue to refine strategy based on performance data.
Hiring A B2B Specialist To Manage Your Social Media Marketing Strategies
- When it makes sense to outsource vs. in-house
Consider outsourcing if you need extensive expertise in paid social ads, influencer marketing, or dedicated resources. In-house for basic community management.
- Developing an effective request for proposal
Outline goals, target audience, metrics, platforms, expected deliverables and results. Ask for case studies, team experience.
- Vetting B2B social media agency partners
Look for expertise in your industry, proven results with clients similar to your business, robust analytics capabilities.
- Defining scope of work, expectations, reporting
Set expectations for content development, community management, ad management. Require regular reporting on metrics and optimization.
- Measuring agency performance
Benchmark against goals for followers, engagement, leads, traffic. Gauge content quality, response rates, costs vs. budget.
Clearly communicating your B2B social media marketing needs and KPIs is key to finding the right agency fit. Continuously monitor and optimize based on robust reporting.
23 B2B Social Media Tips and Tactics with Brand Examples from Slack, Drift, Notion, + More
In the dynamic world of B2B social media marketing, brands are constantly seeking innovative ways to connect with their audience. With brand examples from leaders like Slack, Drift, and Notion, we can glean valuable insights into best practices for crafting an effective B2B social media strategy.
Slack, for instance, has mastered the art of creative social media campaigns. By using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and especially LinkedIn, Slack engages its B2B audience with relatable content that showcases the utility of its platform. Their campaigns often feature real-time collaboration stories that resonate with B2B decision-makers looking for efficient communication solutions.
Notion has positioned itself as a thought leader by promoting high-quality B2B content that addresses the pain points of its users. Through content marketing on various social media channels, Notion provides valuable resources that help businesses streamline their operations, thus reinforcing its social media presence.
The use of chatbots and interactive content on social media platforms for B2B has been a game-changer for engagement rate. B2B brands can now provide instant customer service and lead capture through social media management platforms like Sprout Social. This technology enables a more personalized approach to B2B social media marketing, making it a priority for B2B companies.
LinkedIn remains the premier B2B social media platform, where B2B marketers can directly connect with industry professionals. B2B companies use social networks like LinkedIn for everything from B2B lead generation to social listening, ensuring that their marketing efforts are aligned with the interests and needs of their target market.
Social listening is a critical component of a customer-centric B2B social strategy. By monitoring conversations and trends, B2B brands can create social media content that is timely and relevant, thereby increasing their social media performance.
B2B social media best practices also include a focus on content marketing. B2B content marketers must ensure that the type of content shared is informative and adds value, as this is what B2B buyers are looking for when they use social media for business purposes.
Paid social media is another tactic that cannot be overlooked. With organic reach on the decline, paid social ensures that your social media posts get in front of the right B2B audience. Allocating a portion of the marketing budget to paid social media can significantly boost the visibility of a B2B brand on social media.
In conclusion, to build a better B2B social media presence, companies use social media not just to broadcast messages but to engage in meaningful interactions. Whether it’s through social media campaigns, social media management, or digital marketing, the goal is to create a successful B2B social media strategy that resonates with B2B buyers and nurtures them through the sales funnel. As the landscape evolves, so must the tactics, ensuring that B2B social media marketing remains a vibrant and essential place in B2B marketing.
B2B Social Media FAQ
- Common social media questions
- Platform-specific guidelines
- Community management best practices
- Compliance considerations
