Basics of B2B Social Media Marketing

Basics of B2B Social Media Marketing

 

In this day and age, everyone has social media. With years of using multiple social networks, some may consider themselves professionals in marketing themselves or their business to consumers. When it comes to marketing a business to another business, your strategy has to be a little different to properly reach new clients. Let’s take a look at the basics of B2B social media marketing.

Figure Out What Your Goals Are

The first thing you need to do when you are planning to market business to business on social media is to figure out what your goals are. Obviously the main goal is to land new clients, but setting goals to reach this final goal can help you figure out what works and what doesn’t when trying to close with a client.

How Do You Want To Measure Success?

All goals must have some way to measure the success of marketing. Success can be measured in many different ways and is dependent on your avenue of marketing. If you choose to market with Facebook ads, you will want to look at your Cost Per Acquisition to ensure that you are not paying too much for a lead. For those using a more organic approach, you will want to see how much engagement you are getting on a post and compare that to the time you spent making the post.

Create A Brand Personality

A brand personality is going to make your brand stand out from the competition. While I wouldn’t recommend Wendy’s direct, sometimes insulting personality, you can learn a lot from their rise to social fame. Wendy’s quickly became known for their savage twitter responses that quickly overshadowed their fast-food competitors. Take into account how others view your business, your target customer, and how they interact with each other. The more you can make your brand relatable, the better off you are going to be.

Look Toward Other Networks Besides LinkedIn

The first step in any businesses’ B2B social marketing plan is to hop on to LinkedIn because “that’s where the professionals are”. While this may be somewhat true, you cannot limit yourself to just one social network. Business owners are more than likely cruising around on Facebook and Instagram throughout the week to unwind and this is the perfect time for your business to make an appearance.

Put Professionals In Charge

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses can make when creating a social media strategy is to let someone who is inexperienced take the reigns. While communicating on social media may be easy for most, doing so as a business takes a professional to keep the brand message clear and to achieve the goals of the campaign. Find or train someone who can push the ball forward and communicate well with other businesses in order to close deals.

Take Advantage Of User Generated Content

Last but not least, take advantage of user-generated content to ease your workload and give your potential customers real-world reviews. User-generated content can come in many forms including reviews, photos, product ratings, and more. User-generated content is often more trustworthy by consumers when compared to marketing efforts made by the actual companies.