We all know of B2B companies with a strong social media presence – Google and IBM, to name a few. These companies are on top of their game when it comes to sharing content that attracts and interests their audience on social media. So much so, that they are not too preoccupied with the thought of broadcasting their offerings constantly. Social media does the trick for them already.
If you too want to reap the benefits of having a great social media presence and are looking for smart social media strategies for your B2B business, then you are at the right place. In this post, we will discuss some of the best strategies, which will, in turn, help lead your social media accounts to success. Executing these strategies will aid you in building an audience and engage them in a way that informs and interests them. Let’s begin:
1. Create Relevant, Engaging Content
Many B2B businesses stay active on social media by posting curated content on different platforms. While it’s a great idea to do this every now and then, it’s also important to create creative, original content to engage and attract your audience. It showcases the efforts you put in to interest your audience on social media and goes a long way in creating a positive impact for your brand. Different content ideas include creating blogs, podcasts, videos, etc.
Tip: While looking for advice on how to increase social media engagement, we recommend that you give videos a try. As per the latest stats, 93% of the brands surveyed have earned new customers from a video posted on social media. Moreover, 74% of consumers share video content from brands on social media platforms.
Learn how to execute a successful video marketing campaign on LinkedIn and other social platforms and start posting relevant videos on social media to boost engagement.
2. Test Different Content Types and Posting Times
As your audience will be unique to you, you need to test different content types and posting times to see what works for your brand on social media.
Here are a few ideas you can implement to find out your optimal posting time or the types of content your audience may find interesting:
- See if users click more on links if they are placed differently.
- Check if adding emoticons influences post engagement.
- Play around with the frequency of your posts. Increase or reduce the number of times you post.
- Check if video performs better or a still image.
- Check what pulls in your audience more – questions or statistics?
- Test the number of hashtags in your post to see the impact on impressions.
- See if responding to posts leads to a boost in your follower count.
If the latest statistics are to be believed, the best time to post on social media overall is Tuesdays to Thursdays at 9 or 10 am.
3. Provide Support
Not hearing from a brand after tweeting about a problem you are facing with their product or service has become a rather common occurrence today. Don’t commit this mistake on the behalf of your own brand. You should respond to such messages or comments right away.
Tip: We recommend that you create a dedicated account to offer customer support. And, simultaneously keep an eye out for customer support issues on other social media platforms and respond to them right away.
Today, offering customer support through social media has become a crucial B2B social media marketing strategy to implement. It can help keep your customer relationship intact. It also shows that you are there for your customers if any issues arise.
4. Keep Tabs on Your Competition
Use social media to keep an eye on your competitors’ social media marketing strategy.
Why do this?
It’s highly likely that the target audience of you and your competitors overlap if you are in the same industry. So, it’s only fair to look at the things they are doing on social media to keep abreast of their tactics.
What you need to do is look at the kind of campaigns they are running and see if they are effective. The reason we say this is because a successful campaign of theirs can inspire you to create a winning campaign of your own. A word of caution here – Refrain from copying your rivals’ social media strategies.
Another reason you should analyze the strategies of your competitors on social media is to identify the opportunities that they are not taking advantage of. For instance, if you see that they are not responding to trending news, this is your cue that you need to respond to such news. It will help you stand out from other players in your field.
5. Be Consistent
Most often than not, it can be quite challenging for brands to post consistently on social media. Posting to a number of social platforms every single day can take a lot of planning and content creation. Plus, you need to dedicate a major chunk of your time to it.
We recommend that you create a publishing calendar to be consistent with your posts on social media. This B2B social media strategy will go a long way in boosting engagement and building new audiences for your brand.
Note: If you are just starting out on social media, we recommend that you create and post smart content every now and then. It takes less time to create. An example of smart content can be a well thought out tweet that encourages your followers to join in on the conversation without you putting much effort into it.
6. Identify Your Brand’s Voice
You demonstrate your brand voice through your posts on social media.
Therefore, before you begin to post on social media, a B2B social media marketing strategy that you should follow is identifying your brand voice.
Your audience should be able to recognise you from your brand voice just like they would upon seeing your brand logo. So, choose your brand’s voice accordingly.
Your brand voice can be humorous, formal, serious, or casual. In case you find it difficult to determine your brand voice, look at your landing page copy or blog posts and take note of the tone and emotion in the copy. Then, incorporate the same in your social media posts.
7. Spotlight Your Employees
Another smart B2B social media strategy to follow is spotlighting your employees.
If you observe the current scenario, many B2B brands are increasingly highlighting their employees on different social media platforms.
Why?
It helps personalize their brand and put a face to the company.
Showcasing your staff on social channels also increases reach and engagement. For instance, instead of posting a product photo, you can post the photo of the people who created the product. This photo can then be shared across those peoples’ networks, increasing reach and engagement.
Conclusion
Armed with these B2B social media strategies, you are now in a more informed position to execute them and reap the benefits of social media for your business. Whether it is creating relevant content or resolving customer support issues, using these strategies on social media will surely attract, interest and engage your audience in a much more effective manner. Good luck!