It’s important for your social media marketing to match your brand in tone and personality. It should also speak to your audience. The social media marketing that a fashion brand uses to reach college students will be very different from the social media marketing a corporate accounting firm might use.
It’s important that B2B brands find a form of social media marketing that is professional, appropriate for their brand, and speaks to their audience — who have their own professional and business concerns. Here are our tips for social media tactics that B2B brands can use.
#1 – Focus On the Top of the Sales Funnel
B2C social media marketing is generally aimed at driving sales for the company, but this is not the case with B2B marketing. Most sales-driven marketing in the B2B world happens in the outbound marketing sphere. On social media, your goal should be to represent your brand, educate your audience on who you are and what you offer, and let them know where you can learn more.
You might post a link to a blog on your website or a customer testimonial. You might show that you’re at an event relevant to your audience. These are “top-of-funnel” tactics but will be more effective when it comes to your social media marketing.
#2 – Focus on Your Customers
Your brand should be approachable and should give a taste of the kind of service you offer to customers on social media. Post content that is relevant to your customers. Respond to customer queries and offer a quick form of customer service through social media. If you respond immediately and positively, it won’t go unnoticed by your followers. The customers you help will also have a good impression of your brand, which could boost loyalty and even get you recommended to new customers.
#3 – Keep SMART In Mind For Your KPIs
If you’ve done any marketing or goal-setting, you know about SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. These are things that you’ll want to keep in mind when setting your KPIs for social media, as well. If you’re just starting out on a social media platform, you probably don’t want to set a goal to have 10,000 followers by the end of the month. Nor would you set a goal to have 1,000 new customers by the end of the month. Do your research on how that platform works, on the algorithm it uses, and on what your growth should look like. Then, set SMART KPIs as goalposts for your social media marketing.
#4 – Watch the Competition
Keep an eye on what your competition is doing. This may help to set an example of how you can build your SMM strategy if you’re just starting out. But even if you’re an old hat at B2B social media marketing, it’s still important to watch the competition. How are they reaching out to your shared target audience? Does it work? Are there any social media fumbles they may have made that you can avoid?
You can also look for blind spots in your competitor’s social media marketing. Maybe there’s a current event that your target audience cares about, but your competitor hasn’t commented on it yet. You can be the first to do so, thus garnering more attention towards your brand. Is there something their audience tends to complain about when it comes to their responses? Try to offer an alternative.
#5 – Bring Everything Back to Your Own Content
Where you can, share your own content rather than pulling from external sources. Post blog links, links to your own videos, and create original images — whether yourself or with the help of a freelance graphic designer. The more you share original content, the more you can boost awareness of your brand and hold the attention of your target audience rather than having them become distracted by your source.
And make sure to use different forms of content, too. If you’re on Twitter, a feed that is just blog link after blog link can become boring. Break it up with infographics, videos, polls, and multiple forms of media to keep things interesting.
#6 – Create a Voice and Stick With It
B2B brands should still have a distinct brand voice, one that speaks to their customers. This may be professional and informative or exciting and bold. Whatever voice fits your brand, ensure it comes through across your social media. Be consistent. This may mean having the same person write your social media content or making sure that when different writers tackle your social media, they are able to imitate your brand voice.
