B2B Social Media

Did you know that 92% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers use social media, making it the most used tactic, even more so than email newsletters¹? That’s because social media can both increase brand awareness and be used as a channel of acquisition.

With a multitude of social networks out there, it’s hard to determine which ones your business should be using. Should you only be on one of them or should you be on all of them? This article will help to distinguish what each social network can do for your business and prove that social media isn’t just for the business-to-consumer (B2C) market place.

The Big Players

The social media platforms listed below are the biggest seven social media networks currently. They all have the ability to generate leads and build relationships with your consumers in unique ways. Here’s why CS Designworks sees each social network as a powerful marketing tool:

LinkedIn

Without a doubt your business should be on LinkedIn. This network was built for professionals; people go here more than any network looking for businesses.

LinkedIn allows for a variety of rich content, whether that be links, videos, pictures, or lengthy status updates. You should put a lot of effort into developing a well-maintained LinkedIn profile, as the network is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter².

YouTube

Video is an essential to modern day marketing strategies. In fact, 96% of B2B organizations use video in their marketing efforts, and 73% of those that use video report positive effects on their ROI numbers³.

Videos are a powerful way to communicate your brand message and your value proposition (for more information on the power of video marketing, click here). You should be putting your marketing videos on YouTube because the network lends itself to SEO and videos that are uploaded to YouTube show up directly on search result pages. In addition users are more likely to watch longer videos on YouTube than other social media networks.

Still not convinced that your B2B organization should be using YouTube? Check out the below infographic (courtesy of HubSpot) that shows how internet users interact with online video content.

Facebook

This is no longer a network focused on just connecting friends to friends. It has been ten years since Facebook first debuted pages allowing businesses to join the network and every year the business tools Facebook provides get more and more powerful.

The powerful business tools combined with the staggering amount of monthly active users (1.79 billion according to Facebook’s 2016 Q3 report) make it valuable for marketers. The number of marketers who say Facebook is “critical” or “important” has increased 83% in just two years⁴.

If you’re thinking this a network more for B2C organizations you’re wrong. If used properly, Facebook can be just as important to B2B organizations; 41% of B2B companies have reported acquiring a customer through Facebook⁴.

Twitter

The social media platform famous for it’s 140 character limit. With so little characters, how big of impact can the network really have? A huge one.

A study from Compete in collaboration with Twitter found that B2B tech companies that tweeted had 132% more internet users visit a sign up page and that visitors who came from twitter were 168% more likely to convert than the average internet user⁵.

The nature of Twitter also allows for things to go viral. Join the right conversations or “trends” and your brand awareness has the ability to go through the roof, which will increase your lead generation as a result.

Twitter isn’t just a network for celebrities and influencers, it’s a vital place for your business to exist.

Pinterest

You’re probably thinking that there’s no way that a network known for DIY guides, clothing, food, and decorating can be right for your business, but Pinterest can be as powerful of a lead generator as any other social network.

First of all Pinterest isn’t just for those categories listed above, actually categories aside from those show an 118% year over year growth⁶.

More importantly branded content is huge on Pinterest. Branded content is shared 150% more often than non-branded, and 2/3 of all content people pin is from a businesses’ website⁷.

Every image that you pin on Pinterest has the ability to be embedded with a link that when clicked on sends users to landing pages on your site. This in conjunction with the fact that Pinterest users spend twice as much time online as the internet can mean significant lead generation for your business⁷.

Instagram

Instagram is unique because all posts must be photos or videos. It is one of the only networks primarily designed to be used on mobile devices with limited access available via desktop (an effect of mobilegeddon which you can read more about here).

While only 33% of B2B organizations are on Instagram it’s likely that this number will see a huge increase because organic engagement is 2000% higher on Instagram than Twitter⁸. It would be advantageous to create an Instagram account now while competition is still relatively low in the B2B marketplace.

Google+

There’s no doubt that Google+ is a neglected social network. If your goal is to reach millennials this is certainly not the way to go, however it can be an extremely powerful tool for Businesses.

70% of all businesses have a presence on Google+ and this is likely due to the power of it’s SEO⁹. Consider Google+ more of a tool for SEO optimization than a social network. The more you post on Google+ the higher your company’s profile will rank on search engine results. For more tips on how to rank higher on keyword searches, read this article on keywords.

Analytics

 

In addition to each of their specific benefits, they all have one amazing tool in common: analytics.

Using analytics to measure social media performance is essential because it allows you to gain insights on what your followers respond to and should guide you on what new content to create in order to raise engagement and click through rates.

Followers have the potential to become customers, so keeping them satisfied and getting positive feedback from them is a huge benefit.

Youll also get specific breakdowns on the demographic information of your audience from the analytics, giving you more information on potential consumers. This information can help you not only with social media marketing efforts, but marketing efforts in general.

Getting Started

While undeniably necessary as a tool for businesses, social media can easily become overwhelming. CS Designworks can help you identify which networks you should be active on, then set up and manage your social media channels, contact us for a quote.

 

Sources:

1. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/10/2015-b2b-content-marketing-research/
2. https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/LinkedIn-277-More-Effective-for-Lead-Generation-Than-Facebook-Twitter-New-Data.aspx#sm.001wpvkog1ax0flxsww1t6usf078q
3. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-statistics#sm.001wpvkog1ax0flxsww1t6usf078q
4. https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/11414/12-mind-blowing-statistics-every-marketer-should-know.aspx#sm.001wpvkog1ax0flxsww1t6usf078q
5. https://blog.twitter.com/2013/twitter-and-compete-study-how-tweets-influence-b2b-tech-audiences
6. https://blog.hootsuite.com/9-slides-from-the-2015-meeker-report-social-media-marketers-need-to-see/
7. http://www.business2community.com/pinterest/pinterest-stats-facts-will-make-businesses-cartwheels-01199585#uegXTdUS01Ehz5bj.97
8. https://marketinginsidergroup.com/social-media/how-to-know-instagram-right-for-b2b/
9. http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/28-must-see-social-media-statistics?utm_source=Webbiquity