5 steps to a successful social media strategy for B2B Companies

Are you one of the people thinking social media is just for B2C companies? That's a common misconception; we primarily use social media to entertain and stay in touch with people we know. However, this doesn't mean there's no room for B2B companies in this part of the Internet!

In this post, I'd like to show you five steps to help you create a successful social media strategy for your B2B business. This knowledge will help you plan your presence and achieve better results through this channel.

Step 1: Define your social media marketing goals

If you run a B2B business, you shouldn't be on social media just for the sake of being there. This way, you will shortly run out of ideas, and your profile will be dead. Try a different approach, and ask yourself: What do I want to achieve in social media? The answer is crucial as it defines what you will do in every next step.

Let's be honest; you're likely getting your business elsewhere. Perhaps you participate in a business organization or partake in tendering procedures. Besides LinkedIn, social media is not the best place for B2B companies to seek more clients. So, I assume you have a different purpose. Maybe you want to:

Educate your target audience

• Get more candidates for work

• Build your online image and trust in your brand

• Or something else?

Believe me. You must know what you want to do and achieve on social media. And when you do, you can move to the next step.

Step 2: Find a way to stand out from the crowd

Again, I must be honest with you – B2B companies often don't have anything exciting to discuss. To drive interest and engagement, you must get creative and consider what you could consult to attract a broader audience.

In my experience, the best way is to be helpful. If you run a B2B company, publish content that helps your clients run their businesses. Share useful tips and pieces of knowledge. If you conduct research, publish the results (ideally, in a graphic form).

For example, Semrush's Twitter profile publishes tons of valuable content for marketers – their primary target audience.

This is something we try to do at SentiOne as well. We publish exciting stats and advice based on current market research on our LinkedIn profile.

Thanks to our efforts, our clients can make more informed marketing and business decisions and tweak their strategies.

Other approaches to your presence on social media include:

• Sharing important market news

• Collaborating with other brands

• Sharing the company's experience (i.e., case studies)

• Inviting people behind the scenes

• Presenting the company's employees

• Creating useful TOP10 lists

Step 3: Pick the right platform(s)

Only some platforms are suitable for B2B content. Think about TikTok – this platform was created with just one purpose – to bring joy and entertainment to people using it. I'm not saying it's impossible to develop B2B content for TikTok, but it's not the best place for your brand, especially if your goals are business-related.

Last year, Gartner published a study showing which B2B buyers use social media platforms in their purchasing processes.

The results are fascinating. LinkedIn could be higher, with just 47% of the answers. Facebook and YouTube are your best options, noting over 60% of results. If you think about it, it's not surprising. After all, Facebook is still the biggest social media platform, and YouTube is the second biggest search engine, only surpassed by Google. Both platforms are good if you want to build more personal relationships with your target audience, as they allow you to publish and share content in an attractive form and communicate with your target audience.

Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are slightly less popular, but you must consider your business profile. In many cases, LinkedIn will be better for generating leads, primarily if you work in the marketing, #IT, or #SaaS sector.

Step 4: Add advertising into the mix

The truth is that building your presence and target audience on social media with an advertising budget is possible. Just think about it: hundreds of millions of posts are published daily, every hour. That's an unimaginable noise and amount of information. What are the odds that your posts will reach the right people? Close to zero, I'm afraid. That's why advertising is a must. 

Even with a developed profile, you must engage people and get more followers. Even when someone likes or follows your profile, it doesn't automatically mean they will see all of your posts. Advertising can help you solve this problem and reach your target audience more effectively.

Overdrive Interactive published a chart showing organic reach on Facebook a few years ago. Today, the result would be even worse.

The remedy? It would be best to start advertising your profile on Facebook and any other social media platform you use. It's the best way to:

1. Build your reach and get to new people

2. Keep current fans and followers engaged

Step 5: Use social listening to up your game

The last step I want to discuss today involves what we do here at SentiOne – social listening. This service is beneficial, as it enables you to:

• See what your target audience (and people, in general) is talking about in the context of your company/sector

• See what could be improved about your social media presence (and even your products and services)

• Discover what your competitors are doing on social media to attract and engage their fans

• Understand what kind of content is relevant for your target audience

With a decent social listening platform, you can access millions of sources, so you're not limited to what's happening on your social media profiles. You can monitor other sources, including social channels, internet forums, articles, comments, and blog posts. As a result, you get a complete picture of your company and its target audience. This knowledge, in turn, enables you to tweak your strategy and online presence, not just in social media but on the Internet in general.