5 Best Practices for B2B Social Media Marketing

B2B social media marketing has never been simple.

Decision-makers in the B2B space are quite meticulous when it comes to making purchasing decisions for their companies. Thus, the biggest question facing any B2B marketer wanting to create their footprint on social media is: how to engage and possibly convert a rigid audience on a largely informal medium?

Also, one might feel that there are a lot of restrictions in creating content for a B2B audience, This is why B2B marketers struggle to develop effective B2B Digital marketing strategies for social media.

In this article, I’ll give you useful tips on how you can market your B2B brand successfully in 2023 across various social media platforms.

But before we get into the nitty-gritty of things, let’s take a look at some motivating B2B social media stats that highlight the opportunities B2B social media presents in today’s time.

Inspiring B2B Social Media Stats in 2023

• 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for social media B2B lead generation.
• Social media is a source in making purchasing decisions for 84% of B2B executives.
• 82% of B2B marketers think social media is a top growing channel for marketing.
• 72% of B2B tech companies are using social media marketing.
• 4 in 5 B2B leads come from LinkedIn
• 7 in 10 B2B buyers watch videos throughout their sales journey

5 B2B Social Media Best Practices You Must Follow in 2023

The social media landscape keeps changing. Here are a few best practices that people are following in 2023:

1. Express your Brand Voice and Identity with Clarity

Earlier, B2B companies used to restrict their brand voice to a formal and professional tone. Nowadays, brands actually prefer to deviate from ceremonious or conventional style to anything that gives them a unique identity.

First things first, start with thinking about a personality that your company wants to represent on social media. What personality traits does your company embody? Are you bold, friendly, nurturing, or approachable? Ideating on your brand’s personality will build a solid foundation for the kind of content you want to create for your social media audience.

Make sure you keep your business goals, values, and vision in mind when creating your personality. It’s crucial for B2B brands to come across as experts in their fields. You’ll need to strike a balance between business jargon and layman language. While as a B2B business, you might not be able to completely do away with business terminology, it’s possible to simplify technical information so that your audience can understand and relate to you better.

Also, adjust your tone according to the platform you’re posting on. For example, on Instagram, you can adopt a more casual tone as opposed to LinkedIn, where it’s advisable to sound more professional than sociable.

2. Pay Attention to Employee Advocacy

Why not let the people who form the DNA of your organization become your voice on social media? Customers are always more responsive to word-of-mouth recommendations as compared to any form of promotional content. According to studies, a larger number of people trust a regular employee than a CEO.

Company culture displays on social media will humanize your brand. You can feature your employee’s success stories, perspectives, or their experience working with your company.

Many of your employees must be industry enthusiasts sharing insights about their work or expertise regularly from their personal accounts. You can encourage them to share company posts as well, but make sure that you don’t make employee advocacy a compulsory participation where you’re controlling what, how, and where your employees should post.

Instead, help willing participants express themselves as experts in their fields so that they can build their personal brand as well as your company’s.

3. Keep your Content Customer-Centric 

For B2B social media, there has to be a lot of stress on creating valuable content for your target audience. If you roll out relatable and funny posts from your social media handles, you might get enough engagement to give your confidence a boost. But no C-suite executive is going to give you their business because they enjoy your sense of humor on social media.

This is where B2C and B2B social media management largely differs. For B2B companies, informative content gets more attention than other forms of content. Meaning, content formats like infographics, surveys, trends, case studies, blogs, etc get a better response from the B2B audience.

You’ll need to create or curate useful information for companies. If you really want to stand out, try to give your unique perspective based on your company’s findings or expertise. The B2B audience appreciates content that helps them learn something new or challenge the status quo.

4. Post Heavily on B2B-friendly Platforms 

According to a Statista report, the top social media platforms for B2B in 2023 are Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Let’s look at each of these platforms in brief:
1. Linkedin

LinkedIn is the ideal platform for B2B businesses. Whether you want to network with industry experts, find leads that are looking for your products or services, or get in touch with professionals in your niche for partnerships, LinkedIn is a place every B2B business absolutely needs to have a strong presence.

Posts that get engagement: career advice, industry news, thought leadership content, company culture posts.

2. Twitter

Your approach on Twitter has to be different compared to other platforms. Posting technical jargon or flat business terms on a platform that thrives on trendy and opinionated content will do nothing to help your brand stand out. So on Twitter, be as authentic as you can be, because the Twitter audience rewards honest opinions.
Posts that get engagement: trend participation, interactions with customers, helpful opinions, thought leadership.
3. Facebook

Through Facebook’s own admission, the time spent by business decision-makers on the platform is 74% more than that of other users. However, getting organic reach on Facebook is a bit tough, which is why most B2B marketing on Facebook is centered around ads. It’s still important for you to stay active on the platform and establish your authority in your industry.

Posts that get engagement: video content, informative articles, industry news, and insights.
4. Instagram

Being a photo-first platform, the Instagram algorithm is going to reward visually rich content. So be as creative as you can be when it comes to representing information graphically.

Even though B2B brands have to maintain a very professional image online, make sure you break away from your usual tone and post fun company culture-related content on Instagram.

Also, don’t limit yourself to just regular posts. Indulge in IGTV, stories, Reel trends, and carousels, as Instagram’s algorithm favors its latest features.

Posts that get attention: company culture, videos, reels, infographics, relatable posts, polls, latest trends.
5. YouTube

Video content has gained significant traction as a marketing medium in the last few years. As a B2B business, you can post explainer videos that dive into the services you provide, How-to videos, and introductory videos that explain who you are as a brand.

You can also get creative and post behind-the-scenes company culture videos or vlogs.

Posts that get attention: how-to tutorials, vlogs, product reviews, educational videos.

5. Use Analytics to stay on top of your Social Media Performance

It’s a no-brainer that social media analytics will help you further optimize and improve your social media performance. Use tools like Google Analytics, Hootsuite, BuzzSumo, and Hubspot to find out how your campaigns are performing on social media.
Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you able to generate leads?
• Which platform is experiencing maximum engagement?
• Which type of content is performing well?
• Are your campaigns driving website traffic and raising your page followers?

B2B brands are investing heavily in social media, especially as most businesses have gone digital post the pandemic. No matter what your B2B social media marketing goal is, the above practices should help you build a concrete social media strategy.

Team EMB

Our team of expert writers is committed to bringing insights on topics ranging in the fields of technology, marketing, and business. With a wide-reaching range of services on our platform, we help businesses achieve digital transformation end-to-end.