Whether you’re a B2B marketing professional, or just looking to build buzz for your business online, you’re no doubt aware of the growing importance of social media for B2B.
According to statistics from Social Media Examiner, 93% of marketers say that social media is critical for business. And there are lots of ways you can use it to market your company.
The challenge is knowing where to start! This beginner’s guide is here to help. Here’s how you can use social media effectively in your B2B marketing efforts:
Takeaways |
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1. Social media is a valuable tool for enhancing B2B marketing strategies. |
2. Effective social media integration can lead to improved brand visibility. |
3. B2B social media strategies require a different approach than B2C strategies. |
4. Beyond networking, social media can support customer support and engagement. |
5. Leveraging social media creatively can enhance lead generation for B2B marketing. |
Create A Social Media Strategy
When you create a social media strategy, you’re planning out how you’ll use social media to achieve your business goals. The first step is to determine how you want to use different platforms, like Facebook and Twitter.
Social media can be used for brand awareness, lead generation and engagement with customers. Once you have an idea of which goals will be met by each platform, it’s time to create a plan of action that details the specific steps involved in achieving them.
For example: if one of your objectives is increasing website traffic through links shared on Facebook.
Then one part of your strategy may include posting articles or blog posts directly onto Facebook rather than just sharing them via email newsletters or links within other content pieces like infographics.
Or videos since this method has been proven by marketers in order not only increase traffic but also conversions due all types being highly shareable with short URL length (less than five characters).
Enhancing B2B marketing through social media is a strategic move that can yield remarkable results. Explore how to integrate social media effectively in your strategy by checking out our guide on leveraging social media for B2B marketing. Your business’s online presence will thank you.
Link To Your Blog On Your Twitter Bio
A great way to position your blog posts as a resource for your customers is by linking them to the content on Twitter. This will help you build credibility and authority, while also making it easy for people to find your blog at any time.
Additionally, it makes sense that you would want to promote the same content on multiple channels so that you can reach a larger audience.
Here are two tips:
Make sure that the content of your tweets is relevant to what you are sharing on social media platforms (i.e., don’t share about social media if all of your tweets are about video games).
Include links back to your blog in both the first tweet of each account and in the bio section of each account page!
Integrate Other Marketing Channels With Social Media Through Hashtags
You can use hashtags to connect your social media posts to other channels. When you post a photo or video on Instagram and include a hashtag, it will be indexed by search engines and appear in trending results.
You can also use hashtags to find new followers and customers by searching for relevant tags that relate to the content you’re sharing.
You can increase engagement with your audience by including relevant hashtags in your posts. This shows that you are trying to get noticed by people who are interested in what you have to say, so they may find something interesting within the content of your post.
The more likes and shares a post receives, the more likely people will click through it and this could lead them down the path toward becoming loyal customers!
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Drive Traffic To Specific Landing Pages Via Social Media
You can also use social media to drive traffic to specific landing pages. To do this, you’ll need to create a compelling call-to-action (CTA). A CTA is a button or link that you use on your website and social media posts that direct people back to a specific landing page.
To optimize your landing pages for social media, make sure that they include:
High-quality content – Content should be valuable and relevant for people who find it in search results or browsing through their feeds.
This might include blog posts with valuable information, videos with helpful tips, infographics sharing statistics or other data points relevant to your industry/niche/product line, etc., etc…
Social sharing buttons – People should be able to easily share your content from inside the post itself so encourage them by adding “share” buttons!
Get Creative With Instagram Stories
Instagram stories are a great way to connect with your followers and showcase the unique side of your business. Here are some ideas for how you can get creative:
Use a unique filter for your stories. This is one of the easiest ways to set yourself apart from other businesses on Instagram because it instantly makes your content feel more personal and engaging.
Try using filters that relate directly to what you sell or what kind of industry you’re in (for example, if you run an accounting firm, use an “accounting” filter).
Or if there’s another business or organization that has been particularly inspiring to you lately, try mimicking their look and feel by using one of their filters!
Use a unique hashtag for each story and make sure it’s relevant! If people see that someone else has used this same hashtag somewhere else (even if they didn’t mean it), they’ll be less likely to click over from their feed and see what all the buzz is about.
So make sure every piece of content on Instagram has its unique hashtag attached so it stands out from everything else happening right now online…and then keep track of those hashtags so others won’t accidentally use them again down the road too 🙂
In the digital age, the internet holds the key to business growth. If you’re looking to expand your business’s reach, delve into our insights on utilizing the internet for growth. Uncover the art of leveraging online platforms to enhance your B2B marketing efforts.
Comment On Industry Hashtags Like #CMWorld And #SMChat
Hashtags can help you get your content in front of people who aren’t following you, but it’s important to make sure that what you write in your bio doesn’t look like an advertisement.
Think about how much time and effort you’ve put into crafting the perfect bio for yourself, and use those same principles when creating a bio for your company or brand.
Your bio should be easy to read, simple and clear so that people know what kinds of content they’ll find from you on social media.
Here are a few examples of good bios:
[@CMWorld](https://twitter.com/cmworld): “The official Twitter account for Content Marketing World.” This tweet gives followers an idea of what kind of content they’ll find from this account without being overly wordy or marketing-y.
[@SocialMediaChat](https://twitter.com/socialmediachat): “A place where marketers & agencies talk about social media strategy & tactics.”
This tweet is short, sweet, and informative; it tells followers exactly what they can expect from this account without going overboard on hashtags or other formatting tricks that could make the text hard to read (like capitalization).
Find And Share Testimonials From Customers On Social Media
You’ve done a great job with your marketing and have an obvious track record of success. You know that your customers are happy, but how do you show them off?
One of the best ways to display customer testimonials is by sharing them on social media. Share their stories on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn so that other potential customers can see how much your clients trust you.
Your followers will be intrigued by these glowing reviews about what an amazing company you are and may even decide to try out one of your products or services for themselves!
You should also consider adding customer testimonials to your blog posts as well as emails sent out through email marketing campaigns.
Customers love seeing people they know saying nice things about them (or at least their business!) so having it displayed prominently could lead numerous new users towards making purchases from yours instead of competitors’.
Content marketing is a powerful tool in the modern business landscape. Learn how to effectively harness the potential of content to sell your services and engage your B2B audience. Explore innovative ways to showcase your offerings and build lasting connections.
Make Content Easy To Share By Using Buttons Or Plugins Like Click To Tweet
The next step in making your content easy to share is using buttons or plugins that make it easy for others to share. There are many ways you can do this, but the easiest way is through Click To Tweet.
This little plugin allows your audience members to share the content they’re reading on their social media pages with one click. If you’re looking for other ways to make sharing easier, then check out:
- AddThis – This tool allows visitors/customers/prospects/etc. to easily add your website’s URL into any post they write online.
- Social Media Image Buttons – Create social media image buttons that let people share your website’s images across their networks with a single click.
Share Regular Posts On Linkedin About Industry News
You should be posting on LinkedIn regularly, but not just any kind of content. You want to create posts about industry news that are relevant to your customers.
LinkedIn is an amazing platform for B2B marketing because it gives you a chance to connect with decision-makers in your target market and share useful information with them.
Your goal is to build strong relationships with these people so that they’ll trust you and be more inclined to purchase from you when they’re ready.
Some examples of types of posts that work well on LinkedIn include:
- Industry trends reports or articles that highlight key issues facing businesses today (for example, changes in environmental regulations)
- How-to guides related to the products or services that your company offers (for example, how to use social media marketing tools)
Show Off Your Company Culture On Glassdoor
You can use Glassdoor to show off the culture of your company and the people who make it great. Even if you don’t have a review on Glassdoor, you can still create an employer profile that showcases the mission statement, values, vision, and leadership of your organization.
An employer profile is free for small businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees in the US (or 5 locations worldwide).
Your company’s Glassdoor profile should also highlight any awards or accolades from industry organizations like Entrepreneur, Inc., Fast Company, and CNBC. And don’t forget to include photos of happy employees in action!
Share Photos Or Videos Of Industry Events On Instagram Or Twitter
Use videos to tell your story. If you’re a content creator, or if there are others in the industry creating content for you, consider using video to share knowledge with your target audience.
By highlighting best practices and showing how your company uses them, you can help potential clients understand what makes you unique and why they should pick you over other brands.
Share photos of events or office spaces on Instagram or Twitter. These platforms are primarily photo-sharing sites.
So it’s important that your organization has some sort of visual element to it for users to enjoy when browsing through their feeds even though they may not be ready to buy right out of the gate!
Respond To Every Comment You Get On Facebook, Twitter, Or Linkedin
Responding to comments is one of the most important things you can do for your social media marketing.
If someone takes the time to leave a comment on your post, they’re probably interested in what you have to say and there’s a good chance they might buy from you if they get a response.
As soon as someone leaves a comment on Facebook or Twitter, respond immediately! Don’t wait until later or tomorrow respond right away! It shows that you care about what people think and it shows that you are dedicated to providing great customer service.
This can drive sales, build a reputation and help create loyal customers who will tell others about how awesome working with your company is going to be.
Respond quickly when people ask questions on social media because this gives them confidence that they are dealing with an expert.
Someone who knows their stuff inside-out–and will be able to respond swiftly whenever needed later down the road too (which means more opportunities).
These interactions also show up in search results so if someone searches for keywords related to this topic then they’ll find out how helpful you’ve been along these lines even though it might not seem like much now but trust us: pay attention!
Incentivize Employees To Share Company Content
If your company has a corporate blog, it’s a great idea to incentivize employees to share the posts on social media. This is something that can be done easily using tools like Buffer or Hootsuite.
You can also get creative with how you reward them. For example, if an employee shares a post from their personal Twitter account and gets 50 retweets in 24 hours.
Reward them with $100 cash or another valuable prize (though make sure these rewards aren’t so expensive that they don’t even out).
Discover how to infuse enjoyment into your marketing journey, making it a more rewarding experience. Unveil insights on making marketing more enjoyable and find creative ways to approach your strategies. A touch of enjoyment can have a positive impact on your B2B marketing outcomes.
Use Twitter Cards To Maximize Clicks From Organic Tweets
Twitter cards are a powerful way to enhance and optimize your Twitter content. They can be customized to display images, videos, or other rich media within a tweet.
Twitter cards are only available on Twitter iOS and Android apps, but this does not mean that you should neglect them when posting from other platforms.
If you create custom images for your tweets which I strongly recommend you can still include them in all of your posts by using an image URL as the card’s “title” attribute (the text that appears above the image).
Twitter cards are great for increasing clicks on links and sharing them across social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Conclusion
Social media is a great way to build your brand’s presence and generate leads. Don’t let the B2B jargon scare you off!
In many ways, social media is a tool for people, not companies. And if you focus on building relationships with your audience, that human connection will make all the difference in your marketing efforts.
Further Reading
Here are some additional resources that can provide you with more insights on leveraging social media for business:
Ways to Leverage Social Media for Your Business
Short Description: Discover effective strategies and tactics to leverage social media for your business’s growth and success.
B2B Social Media: The Ultimate Guide
Short Description: Dive into the ultimate guide for B2B social media, exploring techniques to enhance your business’s online presence and engagement.
8 Ways to Leverage Social Media Beyond Social Networks
Short Description: Explore innovative ways to leverage social media beyond traditional networks and incorporate it into various aspects of your business.
FAQs
How can social media benefit my business’s growth?
Social media offers a powerful platform to connect with your target audience, increase brand visibility, and drive traffic to your website, ultimately contributing to business growth.
Is B2B social media different from B2C social media strategies?
Yes, B2B social media strategies often focus on building professional relationships, establishing thought leadership, and providing valuable industry insights to cater to a more specialized audience.
What are some creative ways to leverage social media beyond traditional networking?
Apart from networking, social media can be used for customer support, influencer collaborations, employee advocacy, content distribution, and even market research.
How can social media enhance my brand’s engagement with customers?
Engaging content, timely responses, and interactive campaigns on social media can foster genuine connections with customers, increasing loyalty and improving overall customer experience.
Can social media be used for lead generation in B2B marketing?
Absolutely, social media can be a valuable source of lead generation in B2B marketing by sharing relevant content, promoting webinars, and using targeted ads to attract potential clients.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.