Refine your approach with these B2B social media best practices.
1. Speak to your audience
When it comes to B2B social media marketing, scope creep is real. Don’t try to speak to a general audience. Use the language, lingo, and acronyms that are common in your industry.
That doesn’t mean you should bog down social copy with unnecessary technical jargon. This isn’t about showing off. Marketing is about communicating and connecting. Social messaging should always strive for clarity. Sometimes that means you don’t have to spell things out.
For example, what’s a BeFi Barometer? Most RIAs (registered investment advisors) know it’s a way to measure behavioral finance trends. And for Charles Schwab’s @Schwab4RIAs Twitter account, that’s what matters.
Occasionally, you may be asked to explain what something means. That’s okay. Treat those moments as opportunities to connect. Don’t put anyone down for asking.
2. Create separate channels
As your social audience grows, it may become necessary to create different social media accounts. This will allow you to share the right content and message with each audience.
If you provide customer service, launch a dedicated support channel so that your primary account can focus on other initiatives. Separate channels may also be relevant for different verticals, products, and markets. Depending on the industry and size of your business, news and career channels might make sense, too.
Salesforce has no less than 10 official Twitter accounts. On LinkedIn companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Pinterest, and Google take advantage of Showcase pages to cater to different communities. LinkedIn allows these pages to be linked under the Affiliated Pages section of profiles. On YouTube, accounts can be linked in the Featured Channels section.
3. Personalize your offers
B2B may mean “business to business,” but a little personalization can go a long way. For example, according to LinkedIn data, more than 62% of B2B buyers respond to salespeople who connect them with relevant insights and opportunities. “Relevant” being the key word.
Social media ads allow marketers to target hyper-specific groups. Take advantage of this to tailor messages to people in certain occupations, locations, life stages, and more. There are also ways to personalize organic messaging. Use buyer personas to craft and personalize LinkedIn InMail messages.
Personalization is more than just tacking someone’s name to a message. With separate social media channels, you should create content that speaks to each audience. For example, Recaro makes seats for various industries, including automotive and aerospace. Generic messaging about chairs will not speak to either audience. But content about jet-lag reducing seat lighting may speak to airlines.
4. Provide valuable content
We’re all inundated with content from B2B and B2C brands. To stand out, add value to your B2B social media marketing.
To do this effectively, you need to understand what your customers will find value. That often means identifying their pain points, learning about their business needs, and their customer’s needs.
In the example below, Intercom, a company that provides messaging tools for businesses, demonstrates that it understands challenges faced by support teams and provides solutions for them.
Leverage market research, internal expertise, and other resources to create blog posts, whitepapers, webinars and other content to share on social media. The return on these investments may not seem obvious at first, but building trust, reputation, and authority has long-term benefits.
With the right strategy and tracking in place, you can generate leads, create follow-up opportunities, and learn more about the information your customers value.
5. Retarget with B2B social media ads
Organic B2B marketing has its limits. Most social platforms operate on a pay-to-play model for brands. That’s where B2B social media ads come in.
Social media ads are especially helpful when it comes to following up. Unlike B2C, the B2B sales process takes time, persistence, and buy-in from multiple parties. On an episode of Re:Growth podcast, Jackie Davis, former senior marketing manager at HelloSign, notes that prospective buyers visit a website between five and 10 times during the consideration process.
Facebook and LinkedIn allows advertisers to create custom audiences to target people who are already familiar with your business. Personalize an ad message or present a value proposition to someone who’s visited certain webpages or engaged with your page.
When the French government announced new payroll legislation, payroll software company Sage seized the opportunity to run an awareness campaign. During the second stage, prospects that initially engaged were offered a downloadable compliance guide—an incentive that both sweetened the deal and established Sage as an industry leader.