B2B social media marketing is now essential for thriving the business in both the short and long term. It is used to build brand awareness, generate leads, engage with the audience, promote the products or services, and drive sales.
In a digitally connected world, B2B buyers are not just looking for solutions; they’re seeking authentic connections and value. Social selling bridges the gap between traditional sales and the modern buyer’s journey. It’s about engaging, educating, and building relationships.
Leveraging these new platforms and features allows you to stay ahead of the game, stand out from the competition, and lay the foundations for a solid long-term B2B digital marketing strategy.
LinkedIn has emerged as a top choice for B2B social selling strategies. Its 774+ million members including decision-makers, influencers, and industry leaders make it the perfect platform for B2B professionals.
82% of digital marketers say they achieve their greatest B2B marketing success using LinkedIn and 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation. For that reason, LinkedIn has become the go-to choice for B2B digital marketers across the world.
In this blog, we will delve into the role of industry influencers and experts in B2B marketing and explore strategies for building meaningful partnerships that drive success.
THE NEW FEATURES OF LINKEDIN INCLUDE:
LinkedIn Page Updates which has better analytics, CTA buttons, and easier ways to showcase products and services than before.
Audience Engagement Metrics so that digital marketers can better measure metrics like engagement and views.
LinkedIn Live allows B2B businesses to now broadcast in real-time and host webinars, conferences, Q&A sessions, and product launches whilst boosting engagement.
Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail permit you to send personalized messages to your target audience and promote your products or services.
LinkedIn events to offer virtual or in-person events on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator to create personalized lead recommendations and advanced search for more targeted B2B digital marketing.
BENEFITS OF B2B SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INCLUDE:
- Cost-effective content promotion
One of the top benefits of B2B social media marketing is that it’s cost-effective. Organic posts can be shared to promote the content free of cost. With the right audience and content quality, this content promotion alone can deliver excellent results.
Even for those who want to go the extra mile and get even more impressive results, the cost of paid promotions isn’t too expensive. Though the cost may vary by ad goal and platform, you have the freedom to run ads based on the budget.
This makes social media marketing perfect for small and medium-sized B2B companies and start-ups that often have a limited budget to work with. In fact, social media is the top method for distributing both organic and content among B2B marketers, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
- Drive Traffic
Social media helps increase exposure. People might interact with the company on social media first, then become curious to find out more and go on to visit the website.
Make it easy for the reader to click through to your website by intriguing them with useful links, resources, offers, and more. It’s also important to remember that promotional content should be shared in a way that doesn’t overwhelm your audience or appear overly sales-y, as this could steer them away.
- Expanding your brand reach
Another way to grow reach through social media is by using hashtags. Whether you join in on trending conversations using popular hashtags or create an original hashtag of your own, a good hashtag strategy will significantly boost brand visibility.
Companies like WeWork have owned social media with their branded hashtag. On Instagram alone, you can see over 480,000 posts using the hashtag #wework. The idea is to get people to use these hashtags so others within their network can learn about your brand.
- Generate New Leads
Social media offers a platform for customers and clients to reach out directly to businesses by commenting on posts, submitting user-generated content, sending direct messages, and more. It offers an ideal channel for B2B businesses to drive conversations around their products or services. Utilizing social media platforms to raise exposure and establish industry trust will guide the right customers to the website.
When it comes to the success of each platform, LinkedIn is proven to be the most effective lead generator, followed by Facebook and then Twitter. LinkedIn is used by professionals and businesses; therefore, it provides the perfect opportunity to target your ideal audience and spread the word about your business.
- Provision of better customer support
Social media is a powerful tool in strengthening relationships with B2B customers. It is essential to take advantage of the human element that social media offers by interacting with the audience whenever possible.
In fact, 34.5% of consumers prefer to get support over social media rather than through traditional channels such as phone and email.
Customers who have experienced positive social care are 4X more likely to endorse the brand than those who don’t, according to Conversocial.
- Recognition as a Thought-Leader
Social media serves as an ideal platform to showcase your industry expertise and gain the trust of your peers and customers. Leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to share thought-provoking and industry-relevant news, articles, and more, with your audience can significantly increase the trustworthiness of your B2B company. Being a thought leader in your industry will benefit your company tremendously.
STRATEGIES FOR LEVERAGING LINKEDIN
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile:
Create a professional and engaging LinkedIn profile that reflects your expertise and experience.
Use a high-quality profile picture and a compelling headline that highlights your value proposition.
Write a concise but engaging summary that showcases your skills and experience. List your relevant skills and encourage endorsements from colleagues and connections.
Define Your Target Audience:
Use LinkedIn’s search filters to find and connect with your target audience based on factors like industry, company size, job title, and location, and clearly identify your ideal customers and decision-makers within organizations.
Personalized Connection Requests:
Craft personalized messages that explain your intent and the potential value of the connection and mention common interests or connections to establish rapport instead of sending generic connection requests.
Engage in Thoughtful Conversations:
After connecting with prospects, start meaningful conversations rather than immediately pitching your products or services. Comment on their posts, share insights, and ask open-ended questions to build rapport.
Content Sharing:
Share valuable and relevant content, including industry insights, articles, and research. Showcase your expertise by creating and sharing original content, such as articles and thought leadership pieces. Highlight your company’s achievements, case studies, and success stories.
LinkedIn Publishing:
Use LinkedIn’s publishing platform to share in-depth articles and blog posts. Position yourself as a thought leader by offering insights and solutions to industry challenges.
Leverage LinkedIn Groups:
Join and actively participate in LinkedIn groups relevant to your industry or niche. Engage in discussions, share insights, and connect with group members who match your target audience.
Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator:
Consider investing in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a premium tool that offers advanced search and lead management features. It allows you to save leads, track their activity, and receive real-time insights into potential prospects.
Social Listening:
Monitor relevant keywords and conversations within your industry using LinkedIn’s search and alert features. Stay attuned to the needs and pain points of your audience and be ready to provide solutions.
Measure and Analyze:
Track the performance of your LinkedIn activities using LinkedIn Analytics. Monitor key metrics like connection acceptance rate, engagement rate, lead conversion rate, and sales conversion rate. Use these metrics to assess the effectiveness of your strategies and make necessary adjustments.
Establish a Content Calendar:
Plan and schedule your content sharing to maintain consistency. Use a content calendar to ensure a regular flow of valuable content to your network.
LinkedIn Advertising:
Use LinkedIn advertising to target specific audiences with sponsored content or InMail campaigns. This can complement your organic efforts and help you reach a broader audience.
Build and Nurture Relationships:
Focus on building genuine, long-term relationships with your connections by offering help and support.
Building a strong presence on LinkedIn can help drive business growth and success through lead generation, networking, and relationship building within the B2B space.
Some successful examples include:
IBM: IBM has built trust and credibility with current and potential customers by sharing photos and videos on Instagram of past products from the last hundred years. The company also shares videos of employees sharing about their employee experience, explaining complex concepts like quantum computing, and what new technologies they are researching on.
Cloudera: The company is a leader in the cloud software industry and has proved to be just as innovative in its social media marketing efforts. The company uses the LinkedIn Live feature to stream live conversations around how they are working with data. Livestreaming on LinkedIn is a great tool to build awareness for the brand channel and boost visibility on the platform.
Dropbox, the digital content sharing and hosting platform, uses its brand channel on LinkedIn to not only share product and company announcements but also to highlight employees. Employees at Dropbox use the hashtag #LifeInsideDropbox and the brand account frequently reposts and shares employee stories and content. Potential B2B buyers see the enthusiasm around the brand from its own employees and make them want to do business with them.
SOCIAL MEDIA ROI
Measuring ROI: Measuring social media ROI in B2B marketing involves tracking and analyzing various metrics that directly relate to revenue generation.
Conversion Tracking: By implementing conversion pixels or tags, B2B marketers can trace specific actions taken by users who interact with social media content.
Attribution Models: By using multi-touch or data-driven attribution models, B2B marketers can better understand how various social media interactions contribute to revenue generation.
Engagement metrics and conversion rates: Engagement metrics, such as click-through rates (CTR) and engagement rates, provide insights into the effectiveness of social media content. By tracking how engagement translates into actual conversions and revenue, B2B marketers can assess the impact of their campaigns.
Sales data integration: Integrating social media campaigns with CRM systems provides a holistic view of the sales pipeline. B2B marketers can track how social media interactions correlate with opportunities created, closed deals, and overall revenue.
CHALLENGES TO CONSIDER:
Customer skepticism: It might be more difficult for B2B brands to earn the trust of potential customers through social media than it is through traditional channels as people at times are skeptical of ads. Trust is the most important component of any relationship, so building trust from scratch is a non-negotiable to social selling success, which affects the growth of the customer base.
Defining Your Audience: Social media channels are saturated with people from all walks of life. It can get tough to zero down the target audience and what their needs are. It is crucial to figure out the right people to invest in to gain adequate returns.
Building relationships and engaging with the audience: Social media is not just a one-way communication channel. It’s important to engage with your audience, respond to their comments and messages, and build relationships. This helps establish trust and credibility with your audience, which is crucial in B2B marketing. Meaningful connections can be created through participation in industry discussions, joining relevant groups, and engagement with the target audience.
Measure and analyze your results: B2B social media marketing requires measurement to understand what’s working and what’s not. Usage of analytics tools to track social media performance, such as engagement, reach, clicks, and conversions, and analyzing the data to identify patterns and trends, and make data-driven decisions aid to optimize the social media strategies.
Ethical Considerations: Ethical behavior traits, including honesty, transparency, and open communication, are critical to the success of your business and may even be the decisive factor in a B2B buyer’s decision to select you instead of a competitor.
Thus, social selling works in B2B sales once you’ve established key relationships and built trust. Even though it’s a relatively nuanced process that takes time, it holds the potential to unlock the doors to bigger deals, shorter sales cycles, and ongoing referrals and sales.
What other benefits of B2B social media marketing have you experienced? Share your thoughts in the comments below. And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the updates.