How to Create a B2B Social Media Strategy

A B2B social media strategy requires careful planning and execution. The success of that strategy depends on how well marketers understand their target audience, and their readiness to measure results and make changes as needed.

In this post, we’ll explore the steps you can take to build a B2B social media strategy for your business.

A B2B social media strategy is a detailed plan that outlines the type of content you will post, the frequency of those posts, and the platforms you will use to get your content in front of potential clients.

Recent surveys show that 77% of businesses use social media to reach customers. This vast audience of online users provides a unique opportunity for B2B marketers to connect with potential clients who are actively seeking solutions for their businesses on social media.

I. Understand Your Audience

The first step to building a successful social media strategy for B2B purposes is to research your target audience. This includes identifying decision-makers in the businesses you’re targeting and understanding their daily challenges. This allows you to develop content that directly appeals to them.

Conduct competitor analysis

A good place to start your research is with competitor analysis. Researching your competitors’ strategies can give you insight into what is (and what’s not) working well for them. Competitor research can also help to identify opportunities for improvement, which could give you a unique advantage when you get started.

Analyze buyer personas

Next, take a deeper look at your buyer personas, which are detailed descriptions of your ideal customers. Creating a buyer persona includes doing in-depth research on your existing customers, competitors’ customers, and your social media audience to identify trends or similarities in their behavior, demographics, and geographics, so you can directly target them.

II. Set Objectives and Goals

After getting a clear understanding of your target audience, it’s now time to set some goals. Goals are necessary to help you determine if your strategy is working the way you intend it to, and they can alert you when it’s time to change something.

Establish KPIs

Common social media KPIs include impressions, views, clicks, follower count, comments, shares, and many more. These metrics act as a general guide to let you know how well your B2B social media strategy is working. For best results, establish KPIs for the different phases of your content marketing strategy–attract, engage, convert, and nurture.

Set SMART goals

The next step is to set SMART goals (goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based). While KPIs outline the overall strategy objectives, your goals should be more focused, specific, and actionable. These are the specific day-to-day actions that will eventually lead to meeting those KPIs.

For instance, in an effort to increase engagement (KPI), you could set a simple goal to reply to comments on your latest post for 30 minutes every day.

Social media goals should be thoroughly examined in accordance with overall business goals. While “vanity” metrics like views, comments, and impressions can be exciting to track, and important for brand awareness, it’s also vital to establish conversion-focused metrics, and which channels will lead to direct client conversations. After all, the ultimate goal of your business is to increase sales.

III. Plan Your Content

Content is the core of your B2B social media strategy. A strong and differentiated content plan will ensure you’re reaching not just the right people, but your people. Here are some tips for planning your content:

Use different content formats

Choose a range of content formats to publish on your social sites. This is especially important if you’re planning to post on multiple sites since each social platform favors a different content format. Not only that, but platforms vary by their content sizes, preferred formats, and competitive algorithms.

You may consider a mix of articles, videos, and infographics to cater to your audience preferences.

Create brand awareness

Plan to publish content fairly regularly, especially if you’re just getting started. On most social media platforms, the more frequently you post, the more your content will be prioritized by algorithms. This helps to get your content in front of your target audience more quickly.

In addition, aim to publish the highest quality and most relevant content you possibly can from the start. This will help your brand to develop a good reputation.

Develop a unique brand voice

Standing out on social media can be tough. The best way to accomplish this is to develop a unique brand voice. Think about how you want your ideal customers to remember your business. Do you want to be remembered as ultra formal and to the point, or do you prefer to be seen as casual and approachable? Whichever tone and language you choose to express yourself online, the goal is to be consistent, so that your brand is easily recognizable.

Most, if not all, social media sites today are used by businesses in one way or another. The platform you choose will largely depend on your industry, your end-to-end objectives, and your social media strategy itself.

The best B2B social platform for your business is the one your target audience spends most of their time on. This really depends on the type of business you own.

For instance, if you run a SaaS company that offers technology services to larger companies, LinkedIn would be a great place to market your services. LinkedIn is flooded with tech leaders constantly searching for solutions for their teams. In fact, LinkedIn is largely known as the B2B social platform.

Uniquely, consumer-driven platforms may also play into a B2B strategy. Industries such as retail, fashion, beauty, food, and hospitality – dependent on attractive imagery – will often utilize Instagram or Pinterest to engage with both consumers and industry partners. In these cases, B2C and B2B strategies can go hand in hand.

New businesses or localized small businesses may look to a wider breadth of social sharing platforms in order to form more intimate connections with other small teams.

Understand target audience

Knowing which social media platforms your target audience uses and what they use each platform for can greatly influence the success of your strategy.

V. Build Relationships and Networking

Relationship building and networking are especially important in B2B marketing. This is because B2B sales cycles tend to be much longer, with products and services that are at larger prices than a consumer model. These buyers are looking for businesses they can trust. As a result, building and nurturing professional relationships with your target audience should be prioritized in your social marketing strategy.

Use industry influencers

One way to build your network on social media is by partnering with industry influencers or thought leaders. Trust is an essential factor for success in the B2B space, so working with influencers who have already established their authority in your industry is an effective way to attract new clients.

Participate in groups and communities

Another way to cultivate strong relationships is by participating in relevant groups and online communities. Publishing compelling content in industry-specific communities will help get your brand in front of a larger audience, and other community members will identify your brand as a valuable and knowledgeable contributor.

Other strategies

Some other ways to network and build relationships include hosting or being a guest on podcasts, or attending webinars and other social media conferences.

VI. Measure Results

A vital step in any social media marketing strategy is measuring results.

Monitor performance

This includes regularly checking on your goals and KPIs, and ensuring that the content you’re publishing is still producing the desired results. Ultimately, your strategy should be leading you closer to your KPIs over time.

Analyze & iterate

Depending on the results you’re getting, you might need to change part or all of your strategy. If performance is strong, you may consider adjusting your targets to set larger goals. Or you could focus on refining your strategy to produce stronger results consistently.

Here are some best practices you should consider when building a social media strategy for your B2B brand:

Use consistent branding

Ensure the tone of your content and your visuals are consistent across all social platforms, and in each piece of content you publish. This makes it easier for potential clients to recognize your brand.

Highlight company culture

Showcasing your company’s culture in your social media posts can help to attract customers. People are naturally drawn to a positive environment, so if your business upholds a positive work culture, it’s a good idea to highlight it.

Develop a content calendar

A content calendar outlines the type of content you’ll be posting, your posting schedule, and the platforms you intend to use. This simple tool helps you stay on track and publish content consistently. It’s also a good idea to revisit old calendars to identify content gaps or to avoid publishing the same things repeatedly.

Create compelling content

High-quality content is the backbone of any marketing strategy. It is your content that will attract potential customers to your business. Content is also necessary to keep new clients engaged and properly nurtured. The key here is to develop content that directly addresses your target audience’s pain points. This makes it clear that you understand their problems and that you are able to help solve them.

Utilize paid advertising

While organic content has its place, paid advertising can get you in front of specific target audiences much more quickly.

Here’s a list of B2B businesses that are using social media marketing to engage with their audience:

DesignRush

DesignRush is a B2B marketplace that connects businesses with agencies. Their social media strategy includes publishing content on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Most of their audience is on LinkedIn, with approximately 58K followers on the platform. On LinkedIn, they publish business news, as well as marketing tips for their target audience.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps with content creation and scheduling, among other things. The bulk of their audience is on X, where they have over 7 million followers. On X, Hootsuite publishes a mix of fun, lighthearted content, and links to relevant content on their blog.

Forge and Smith

Forge and Smith is a web design agency that markets its services on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. With over 1K followers each on LinkedIn and Instagram, their strategy entails publishing web design and SEO-related content, which includes many visual pieces.

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform. They are active on a wide range of social media sites, with their largest following of 128K+ on LinkedIn. Their content on LinkedIn consists mostly of social media news and reposting tips from experts.

Consider the following trends as you develop your B2B social media marketing strategy:

Community building

In the B2B space, relationships are everything. When creating your strategy, it’s important to focus on building a close community around your brand. Remember, since B2B purchases are more expensive, trust needs to be established as soon as possible.

Ungated content

Ungated content is increasing in popularity, with more brands relying on the relevance and quality of their content to encourage followers to hand over their contact details.

More B2B businesses are encouraging their workers to promote their company’s content online and to engage with potential customers. This is a great way to build confidence in potential customers, as they are able to engage directly with workers and not just department heads.

Video dominance

Video content continues to increase in popularity across platforms. B2B brands are likely to up their video content output in an effort to draw more attention from their audience.

A well-planned and executed social media strategy can help B2B brands get in front of their target audience, build lasting relationships, and increase sales. ICUC’s social media services can help you develop the right strategy for your business.

Ready to develop an effective social media strategy for your B2B brand? Book a meeting with us.

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