How to Develop a Winning B2B Social Media Strategy

It’s no secret that social media is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. But if you’re like most companies, you probably don’t have the time or resources to manage a comprehensive B2B social media strategy.

That’s where we can help. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to develop a winning B2B social media strategy, along with a few ingredients to make it work.

What is a B2B social media strategy?

A B2B social media strategy is a plan for how your business will use social media to achieve its marketing and sales goals. It takes into account which platforms will be most effective for reaching your target audience, what kind of content you will share, and how often you will post. Developing such a strategy is challenging, but it is essential for any business that wants to use social media to its full potential.

Benefits of a B2B social media strategy

Higher exposure and brand awareness

When you post relevant and engaging content on social media, your business will gain more exposure. This will help you attract new leads and customers, as well as increasing brand recognition.

People are more likely to remember your brand if they see it often, and social media is a great way to stay in front of your target audience. If you post interesting content that educates or entertains them, your ideal users will be more likely to follow you and share your posts with their own networks.

Better sales and ROI

A well-executed B2B social media strategy can lead to higher sales and increased ROI. By using social media to generate leads and nurture them through the sales process, you can close more deals and grow your business.

Once handled correctly, social media should be a top source of new business for your company. If you are not seeing outcomes from your social media efforts, it is likely that you are not using the right strategy.

Improved customer experience

You can use social media to improve the customer experience by providing timely support and engaging followers on a personal level. By monitoring social media, you can quickly respond to any negative comments or reviews.

You can also use social media to proactively reach out to customers who may be having problems. As a result, you can build relationships with your customers by sharing relevant and interesting content to connect with them on deeper levels.

B2B vs B2C social media strategy – what is the difference?

While there are some similarities between B2B and B2C, there are also some key variations. A B2B social media strategy is often more oriented on building relationships, whereas a B2C social media strategy is more focused on driving sales right away.

While customer loyalty is important in both cases, it is especially crucial for B2B businesses whose sales cycle is longer and more complex. Content in a B2B social media strategy should be educational and informative rather than promotional only.

Content should also be customized according to each stage of the sales funnel, from awareness through consideration to decision. B2B buyers are more likely to conduct research and compare products before purchasing, so your content needs to reflect that.

B2B social media strategy good practices

#1 Fully understand your audience

The first step in developing a B2B social media strategy is to understand your audience. What are their needs, wants, and pain points? What kind of content would they find helpful or interesting?

Once you have a good understanding of your target audience, you can start creating strategies that will appeal to them. Knowing your audience has another advantage, too – you can make your strategy more customer-centric.

This means that your content will be more focused on providing them value rather than promoting your product or service. Creating customer-centric content can be difficult if you don’t fully understand your target audience, so take the time to get to know them before you start creating your B2B social media strategy.

Research & content ideas:

• reading industry reports and news articles
• analyzing your customer data
• conducting market research surveys
• talking to customers directly

This will also help you choose the right platform for your communication. When you have more details on where your audience is active, you can focus your B2B social media strategy on those platforms.

Example: 

Don’t be afraid to speak directly to your audience. Being aware of their feelings and showing that you care can help you establish a bond with them.

Read more: How to Capture a Cynical Audience

#2 Create content that resonates

It’s not enough to just create content for the sake of it. Your content needs to be relevant and interesting to your target audience, tailored to each stage of the buyer’s journey from awareness to decision, and aligned with your business goals.

You may also follow a Buyer Awareness matrix by going through problem unaware, problem aware, solution aware, and product aware stages. People buy outcomes, not features – that they may not be interested in your product or service itself but rather what it can do for them.

Your B2B social media strategy should focus on your target audience and their specific pain points. This will help you create content that resonates with them and convinces them to do business with you.

Here’s an example of how you can create content that resonates with your target audience:

• If you’re targeting people who are unaware of your product, your content should be focused on education. This could include blog posts, infographics, or videos that explain what your product is and how it can help solve their problem.
• If you’re targeting people who are aware of their problem, your content should be focused on offering a solution. This could include blog posts, ebooks, or webinars that offer tips and advice on how to solve the problem.
• If you’re targeting people who are aware of your product, your content should be focused on showing them how your product can help solve their problem. This could include case studies, testimonials, or product demos.
• If you’re targeting people who are ready to buy, your content should be focused on helping them make a decision. This could include free trials, coupons, or money-back guarantees.

Remember, the goal of your B2B social media strategy is to create content that resonates with your target audience and helps them move through the buyer’s journey. In order to raise brand awareness, your content should be educational and informative. To generate leads, it should be focused on driving conversions.

And finally, don’t forget to include calls-to-action (CTAs) in your content. Without a CTA, your content will be less effective at achieving your desired results.

Research & content ideas:

• creating how-to guides and tutorials
• sharing industry news and insights
• comparing and presenting solutions
• showcasing case studies

Example:

Create your own unique style of sharing insights and distinguish your content from other accounts on the Internet. Make it fun like Mailchimp does.

Read more: Ultimate Guide to Social Media Content Calendar

#3 Don’t forget about community management

Community management is a vital part of B2B social media strategy that’s often overlooked. It’s all about engaging with your target audience.

Building long-term relationships is important because it helps you build trust and credibility. When people trust and believe in your brand, they’re more likely to do business with you.

Research & content ideas:

• responding to comments and questions
• engaging in social listening
• running contests and giveaways
• building relationships with influencers

Example:

Slack has a unique way of interacting with its audience. They create engaging social media content by using customer questions.

Read more: How to Respond to Hate Comments on Social Media

#4 Show your team and company culture

Your B2B social media strategy should include content that showcases your team’s personality and values. If you show company culture, you will attract like-minded people who can help you build a strong community.

Fostering company culture on social media can aid in several ways. It can help you attract top talent as candidates will be able to see what your company is like before they even apply. It can also help you build a strong community of clients and fans who share your values and thus promote your brand in a natural way.

Research & content ideas:

• sharing behind-the-scenes content
• posting employee spotlights
• celebrating company milestones
• highlighting customer successes
• publishing photos and videos of your team
• encouraging company values

Example:

Instagram Reels are a good way to demonstrate your company’s culture to clients and potential hires, giving them a glimpse of what working there is like.

Read more: Building a Team Culture in Times of Remote Work

#5 Foster thought leadership

By being a thought leader in your industry, you can drive a lot of business. People will see you as an expert and authority figure, which will make them more likely to do business with you.

You can position yourself as a thought leader by posting relevant and valuable content on your business profiles, as well as encouraging employee advocacy.

This is when your employees share your content on their personal social media profiles, amplifying your reach and helping to build rapport with potential clients.

Research & content ideas:

• sharing interviews and blog posts
• giving talks or presentations
• creating infographics or videos
• publishing sneak peeks of ebooks or whitepapers
• conducting research studies

Example:

Share reports and results of studies with your followers to help establish your leadership position. Just like HubSpot.

Read more: Social Selling on LinkedIn – our Guide

#6 Use social proof

One of the most important aspects of any B2B social media strategy is using social proof. That means using other people’s endorsements to promote your own products or services.

Research & content ideas:

• use customer testimonials
• share case studies
• post user-generated content
• show off your awards and accolades
• feature reviews from third-party sites

Use social proof to show potential customers that other people are doing business with you and that they’re happy with your products or services. Doing this will help you increase both leads and sales.

Example:

Dropbox demonstrates how its product is used by companies through a series of short videos posted on Instagram. You can include more information in such a video than in any other review type. And nothing works on people like visuals.

Read more: UGC on Social Media – How To Attract More Customers

#7 Keep your audience informed

Your audience follows you for a reason. So, while you should share a mix of content, you must also keep them informed about what’s going on with your company.

Research & content ideas:

• announcing new products or services
• publishing press releases
• sharing business news
• giving updates on changes or improvements

You should juggle with content. Boring your audience with too much company news is a surefire way to get them to unfollow you. On the other hand, if you never share anything about what’s happening, they’ll eventually stop being curious and move on.

Find a happy medium and make sure to keep your followers in the loop.

Example:

While we didn’t want to reveal any new releases at the time of publication, we did want to give you a sneak peek to prepare our audience for upcoming changes.

Read more: How to Plan Quality Content on Social Media

B2B Social Media Strategy: 3 Quick Tips to Get Prepared

Pick metrics to track

Understanding what you want to achieve through social media is a huge thing. Without having a goal, you can’t successfully complete a strategy. Once you have an objective in mind, you need to think about how to measure your success.

Therefore, if you want to create an effective B2B social media strategy, you need to set some social media metrics to track.

Here are a few examples:

• number of leads generated
• website traffic from social media
• engagement rate in your target group
• sales revenue attributed to social media

Picking one or two social media metrics to track will help you focus your efforts and understand what’s working, as well as what’s not.

Create a workflow in your team

Designing your social media plan is one thing, but executing it is another. In order to do so effectively, you need to have a clear workflow in your team. That way, everyone will know what their roles and responsibilities are.

When designing a social media workflow, consider the following:

• Who will create content?
• Who will review and approve suggestions?
• Who will publish content?
• Who will monitor social media channels?
• Who will respond to comments and questions?

Creating a workflow will help you avoid confusion and duplicate efforts in your team. It will also help you achieve better results from your B2B social media strategy.

Collect your tech stack

For both creating content and sharing it on social media, you need to have the right tools to hand. Before you start creating content or sharing it on social media, you need to collect your tech stack.

Your tech stack is the set of tools that you use to create and share content.

It includes things like:

• photo editing software
• video editing software
• social media management tool
• social listening tool

Having the right tools will make it easier for you to create and share high-quality content on social media, as well as help you save time.

Remember: always deliver value via your B2B social media strategy

Boring or promotional content will not only turn off your target audience, but it will also make them less likely to do business with you. As such, you should focus on creating interesting, helpful, and engaging content that will help you build relationships, foster thought leadership, and increase social proof.

If you do that, you’ll be sure to develop a winning B2B social media strategy.