B2B Social Media Marketing

Using Social Media for Inbound Marketing

Social media platforms are excellent ways to generate inbound leads for your business and engage with others in your industry. Being an active social media participant promotes your thought leadership and keeps your business top-of-mind. But deciding if B2B social media marketing works for your business can be difficult. You might be thinking “Will social media work for me?”. The answer is, yes! Here are a few benefits from social media that you might not have considered:

1. Building Awareness – Customers are more likely to buy from brands and companies that are familiar to them. Social media is an effective and low-cost way to build that familiarity.
 
2. Staying Top of Mind – The average person spends 2.5 hours a day on social media; staying relevant means going where your customers spend their time and interacting with them there.
 
3. Being Seen as Subject Matter Expert – Become your prospects’ go-to source for industry news and education by regularly sharing relevant and valuable articles and resources.
 
4. Lead Generation – Social Media is a cost-effective platform to learn more about the interests of your target audience as well as their pain points. This information can help you customize your content and drive higher quality leads that may eventually convert to paying customers.
 
Although there’s a large range of social networks, from Facebook to Pinterest, for B2B startups and growing businesses, the two essential social networks are LinkedIn and Twitter.
 

LinkedIn

 
LinkedIn is a professional social network with more than 500 million members worldwide. In addition to personal profiles, LinkedIn also has company pages and groups. Leverage the company pages to create a coherent voice for your company, but don’t forget to share the company posts from your own personal profile. LinkedIn users are mainly looking to connect with individuals, not companies: your company account should provide information, while your personal account adds flavour.
 
LinkedIn is particularly effective for inbound marketing for B2B companies because everyone in the network is there for professional purposes. The search abilities let you identify potential leads because profiles show titles and employers. Company pages show the number of employees and the ability to post updates via both your personal and company profile allows you to stay top-of-mind with prospects.
 
What to share: Company news, blog posts, industry articles and guides
How often to share: Twice a week to once per day
When to share: During weekdays from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., 12 p.m., 5 to 6 p.m.
 

Twitter

 
Twitter is a social networking service that allows users to post 280-character tweets. Twitter has over 336 million active users and over 500 million Tweets are sent a day.
 
User tags and hashtags are a great way to widen your audience beyond only your followers. Often users will search for a hashtag to find the latest news, such as #b2bmarketing or #leadgeneration. Before you tweet, take a look at what industry leaders are posting, and consider incorporating their hashtags into your post and join the conversation!
 
What to share: Company news, blog posts, industry articles, and guides; inspiring or entertaining quotes (occasionally)
How often to share: 2-10 updates a day
When to share: During weekdays in the afternoon to evening
 

Facebook & Instagram

 
Other major social media networks that B2Bs sometimes leverage includes Facebook and Instagram. Although these are more often used for B2C than B2B businesses, you should consider if these platforms are a good fit for your business.
 
Many B2B companies feel that Facebook and Instagram are only relevant to brands that sell directly to consumers. But both platforms can offer storytelling opportunities to humanize your brand and connect with your potential clients. They can serve as communications channels to share your company values and build a community of like-minded individuals.
 
If your product is not visually stimulating, you can still find creative ways to share stories with your customers such as pictures or videos of fun work activities or interesting encounters with clients. You can also share images that feature tips, quotes, and fun facts. People will find value in your page if you post something they can either learn from or find entertaining.
 
Do take note that Facebook is fast becoming a video dominated platform and native videos have a higher reach than text or images. To maximize your visibility, it would be advisable to focus on video creation as a more effective strategy.
 

Executive Branding

 
An emerging trend in the B2B space is executive branding where senior executives create and nurture their own personal brand. In order to develop trust, buyers want to know the people behind the company’s mission-vision. As your top management share their valuable insights, other professionals will begin to look to them for advice and inspiration. They can become the industry authority that will help drive business to your company.
 

Finding the Best Time to Post

 
Get the most out of your social media updates by posting them at times when more of your followers are active or most likely to engage with the update. Consider Tweriod to help identify the best time, or check out a few different studies to have a general idea. You can tweak your schedule later if you find a different time that works better!
 

Managing Multiple Social Media Accounts

 
When you become active on multiple social media accounts, using a social media scheduling app can make the process of finding and posting updates more efficient. Apps such as Buffer, HootSuite, and CoSchedule allow you to schedule updates to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook pages ahead of time.
 
If you have any further B2B social media questions, send us a message, or follow us on Twitter for the latest tips and tricks!
 

Using Social Media for Inbound Marketing