How to Use Social Media as a B2B Company

Social media marketing has become a necessity in most businesses' toolkits today. And B2B companies are no different.

If you’re saying, “But we sell to other businesses, not individuals, why do we need to practice social media marketing?” remember there’s still a human behind every B2B purchase, too. Numbers tell the same story:

• 75 percent of B2B buyers use social media to make buying decisions
• 60 percent of B2B marketers say social media is the most effective channel for driving revenue

That said, there are key differences between how you formulate a B2B social media strategy and a B2C social media strategy. This article will highlight those and help you create a solid social media strategy for your B2B company.

B2B social media marketing vs. B2C social media marketing: How should your strategy differ?

B2B social media marketing isn’t the same game at a different level; it’s a different league altogether. Here’s why:

• B2B social media marketing is more complex. B2B social media is less straightforward by the very nature of its products. While B2C products are usually not technical, B2B social media requires an in-depth understanding of complex topics and features.On the flip side, this complexity is also what keeps things interesting — ensuring your social media marketing efforts are always fresh. In B2C, social media marketing can start to blend after you reach a certain threshold of success.
• B2B social media marketing has a much longer sales cycle. Almost all B2B purchases require either multiple decision-makers or an extensive evaluation by an individual. This is because the average order value of a B2B purchase exceeds B2C averages (sometimes by a mile and more).Consumers can purchase mascara on a whim, but they won’t casually drop hundreds of dollars for a yearly subscription to a B2B tool.
• B2B social media marketing creates a wider impact. A B2B purchase is rarely for just one person; a whole team uses the tool. This means that while B2B social media marketing is hard(er) work and a long game, the impact is also wider.
• B2B social media marketing attribution is tougher. Since sales cycles can run astronomically long in B2B purchases, it’s difficult to attribute direct purchases via social media marketing in B2B. For example, a company might’ve discovered your B2B product via social media, but closing them might’ve taken one year — making it nearly impossible to attribute this sale in your social media performance reports. In B2C, attribution is usually more straightforward.

Despite all the differences, B2B social media marketing has a lot more in common with traditional social media strategies. Regardless of the business type:

• Both B2C and B2B social media marketing need to keep buyers front and center. Don’t use social media channels as a megaphone to talk about you, you, you. Instead, use social posts to help and entertain your potential buyers. Your goal is to alleviate their pain points via relevant content — regardless of company type.
• Both B2C and B2B social media marketing need an in-depth understanding of their target audience. You can’t create impactful social media content if you don’t know your potential buyers’ pain points and how you can help them.
• Both B2C and B2B social media marketing require interaction as much as posting. Social media isn’t a one-way street. You need to engage by responding to comments, direct messages (DMs), and having meaningful conversations with your buyers. You can’t build a solid social media community and foster genuine connections if you post and ghost.
• Both B2C and B2B social media marketing need social listening. You need to know what your buyers are thinking, which trends they are following, and what industry news is affecting them & how. Social listening is about keeping a pulse on what’s going on in your target audience’s life. It’s non-negotiable if you want to succeed with your social media strategy.

Now that you know the shared qualities and the core differences between B2C vs. B2B social media marketing, let’s address the elephant in the room: B2B social media content is boring.

How do you cast a boring-repellent on your B2B social media marketing

Before we get into how you can use a Hogwarts spell to transform boring B2B content into interesting, it’s important to note both “boring content” and “high-quality content” are subjective terms. What you think is boring might not actually be boring for your target audience. Just swap your social media feed with a friend’s and you’ll see their For You page is drastically different from yours. It might be uninteresting to you, but it’s keeping them hooked. So don’t sweat creating complex and technical content if you’re confident your audience will love it.

Still, most B2B social media companies have a snooze-worthy social media presence. It largely comes down to three issues:

1. Not having a thorough understanding of your target audience

You need to know what your target audience thinks & worries about, who influences their purchases, and what they use social media for. This is easier to do in the B2B industry because you have sales reps and customer success departments who know your potential customers’ pain points very well. Ask for their help — B2B social media marketing (and any marketing, for that matter) is cross-functional.

Cognism’s overall digital marketing strategy does this exceptionally well. They often create educational LinkedIn content and relatable memes that prove how well they understand their potential customers.

2. Not entrenching yourself in the subcultures of your target social media platforms

B2B social media marketing isn’t about being on many social media platforms. It’s about being at the right ones (more on that in the next section). And more importantly, it’s about understanding the specific sub-culture of your chosen social platform.

For example, TikTok is all about participating in trends, showing your face, letting loose, and honing in on authenticity. You don’t need to create your content in a suit; it needs to be casual. But LinkedIn is drastically different. Here, you can share product tips and be much more company-focused than you can be on TikTok. Twitter (now X) always has its own trends specific to industry news or location.

You can only ace all of this once you’ve spent a lot of time and energy not only creating social media content, but using these platforms to understand how your potential customers use it.

Tl;dv is a great example because they regularly create TikTok content that hits just right with their target audience. You can tell they know and understand how TikTok works — the pacing, the content ideas, and the quick transitions, all match the TikTok vibe. Plus, they know their audience’s pain points (and how to make fun of them).

When I asked Ian Evans (part of the organic social media team at tl;dv) about he finds such relatable content ideas, he explained the comments are the goldmine: “Even if our video is only a basic joke, it can often prompt people to share their experiences or stories in the comment section. We can get new ideas but also learn what our audience finds funny/not funny.”

3. Not knowing your B2B product from top to tail

You can know your target audience and how to use different social media platforms. But it’s all for nothing if you don’t know the product you’re selling.You need to know which features fulfill what desires, why your customers choose you over your competitors, what’s on your product roadmap & why, and how your existing customers use your product. All this info will help you create social media content that will truly resonate with your target audience.

TallyForms does this best — regularly highlighting and promoting their new features & templates using social content.

What happens when you check all the boxes above? You create B2B social content that’s truly engaging, relatable, and fun.

Trust me, your potential customers can smell it when you: a) don’t know them well, b) don’t know the social media platform, and c) don’t know your own product. This is why they scroll away instead of stopping to listen to what you have to say. And the best part is if you’ve aced product, customer, and social media platform knowledge, content ideas will overflow.

How to create a B2B social media strategy in 6 steps 

There are many, many ways to create a social media strategy. But it all follows roughly the same big steps. You can shift the orders of some of these steps (for example, you can determine your social media goals before you narrow down your social media channels), but the rough path stays similar.

Step 1: Narrow down your social media goals

Why do you want to be on social media platforms? What do you want to achieve with a social media presence? How does social media marketing help you meet your overall business goals?

The first and the most crucial part of creating a social media strategy is knowing exactly what you desire to accomplish using social media channels. It’s tempting to just start creating social media posts, but random posting will just get you random results. And worst of all: you won’t be able to prove the impact of your efforts if you don’t set concrete social media goals.

These goals should also have a tangible KPI attached to them so you know how to measure their impact. For instance, if you want to generate leads using your social media marketing strategy, maybe you assess the impact by calculating how many website visitors came via your unique link or how many potential leads filled “social media” as their source of brand knowledge.

The next question: What social media goals should you set as a B2B company? Since B2B purchases involve a long sales cycle and thorough purchasing decisions, it’s best to have more realistic goals like increasing brand awareness or sourcing top talent.

You can also use your social media page to grow other areas of your marketing strategy — like getting people to sign up to your newsletter or potential leads to register for your webinar. For example, BetterUp often promotes its live webinars using LinkedIn.

Now, can you set multiple social media goals? Yes, but always set priorities for your goals so you don’t get distracted from what’s truly important.

Ian Evans at tl;dv strives for both awareness and goals. He explains how to strike that balance:

“We strive for both conversations and awareness, but it’s a balance. When the views are up, it’s easier to aim for conversions because we’ve got more eyeballs. When the views have been in a slump, we can go back to our roots and post the more enjoyable/shareable content, even if it’s got a weaker CTA.”

In the beginning, though, tl;dv was also partial toward brand awareness as a social media goal.

Remember that different social channels can have a different content strategy, too. For example, maybe you’re using LinkedIn to source talent and TikTok for lead generation. To accomplish this, you’ll need to create different social media posts for different social media channels (employee advocacy program on LinkedIn, customer success stories on TikTok).

Lastly, don’t forget that your social media goals can (and should!) evolve as your business priorities change. Keep shifting with them as your company moves forward. This doesn’t mean you switch your social strategy every quarter, but you take a more holistic approach to move your social media marketing plans in tandem with your business growth.

Step 2: Determine which social media platforms you should be on

Should you be on all social media sites? There are some advantages to being present everywhere and being an early adopter of new social platforms but quantity doesn’t mean quality. It’s better to ace one platform at a time before adding another. Why?

• All social platforms have their own vibe, subculture, etc. You can’t dive deep into all social platforms simultaneously without burning out
• You can repurpose existing content for new social platforms as you add them gradually

Now, what is the right social media channel for your B2B business? Prioritize the social channels your potential buyers use to learn more about products like yours.

For example, Dock often posts about its features on LinkedIn with a “little things you’ll love content series” since most of its customer base (sales teams) are present on the platform and are open to new tool recommendations.

That last part is crucial because your audience might be active on Instagram, but they might not want B2B businesses on their feed. They aren’t in the buying or consideration mindset while using this social media channel. Yes, you can eventually start creating Instagram content as a B2B business, too, but it’s ideally last on your list. Add it after you’ve already aced the social channels where your audience is open to discovering B2B products.

A study by Content Marketing Institute found LinkedIn delivers the best value for B2B marketers. Another research confirmed this finding and added X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (in that order) are the other channels of choice in the B2B space.

I’d advise not to rely on external research alone to determine the right social media channel to prioritize, though. Ask your existing customers what social platforms influence their purchasing decisions the most.

While you’re at it, also ask them what kind of content they find the most relevant, helpful, and engaging from B2B companies. Your existing customers are the source of the most accurate information about your specific B2B social media marketing. Why? Because your leads also behave like them.

Step 3: Decide your content pillars

Content pillars are the foundation of your marketing strategy. They are the key themes or topics you want to focus on and become known for in your B2B social media efforts. Think of content pillars as the first thing you want your audience to think of when they hear your company’s name.

For example, when someone says beehiiv, I instantly think of email marketing, brand sponsorships, and newsletters. This is because they’ve consistently published content around these topics — enough for it to become sticky in my mind.

You should have broadly three to five content pillars, and any social posts you create should fit into one of these buckets as much as possible.

Now, how do you find your content pillars?

• The first source is always customer research. What do your buyers care about? What kind of content do they want to see? Which content influences them the most? Apart from speaking to your customers, you can also use tools like SparkToro to see where your audience’s interests lie.
• The second source is competitive analysis. What are your competitors posting about? Is educational content getting more engagement than entertaining content? What questions or feedback is your shared audience leaving in the comments section? Competitor research can provide valuable insights into what your content pillars can be.
• Lastly, experiment and find out! Use your social media performance metrics to determine what kind of posts get the most engagement, questions, DMs, and website visits. Double down on them. It might take a while to find your footing, but it’s going to be rock solid once you get there.

Remember that your content pillars must be broad enough to have various sub-topics. This ensures you never run out of content ideas and (almost) always have something fresh to say.

For example, one of your content pillars can be customer stories. Under this, you can create content around customer testimonials, repurpose case studies to show social proof, and showcase how other companies use your features. These are various umbrellas of their own under a single content pillar.

Step 4: Create a content calendar

A content calendar is the place where you fit all the execution pieces into the puzzle. Once you’ve narrowed down your overall marketing strategy, social channels, and content pillars, the next thing to do is the actual work: content creation.

I’d advise creating content in advance for the week or month (more lovingly called content batching) and scheduling them using a social media management tool like Buffer. Using Buffer, you can schedule your posts in advance and not worry about doing it manually.

Not just this: You can also store your content ideas as they come to you. Those shower breakthroughs should always have a place on the shelf, right?

Pro-tip: While creating a content calendar, leave some space to create trending content. Trends are often fleeting, so they can rarely be planned in advance with a content calendar. This also applies to reacting to industry news that’s time-sensitive.

Another pro-tip: And don’t forget to create content for the predictable days in your audience’s life. For example, if you sell accounting software, you can always have a tax reminder post whenever the tax is due in your audience’s location. For example, Air created many holiday-centric social content that would be relatable for their target buyers.

Step 5: Analyze your social media insights

Monitoring your social media performance can help you get an even deeper insight into what’s resonating with your potential customers. For example, a certain topic always tends to increase your social media followers — proving it strikes the right chord with your target audience.

If you use Buffer, you get these social media insights at your fingertips in a few clicks. You can know the best content format for a social media platform, best day & time to post, and create beautiful, branded reports.

Your social media efforts need to shift shape using these analytics. If you consistently see a type of post or content pillar underperforming, for instance, it’s time to cut it loose. These analytics should help you nurture relationships with your audience even further. Mark it in your calendars to run a fine-toothed comb on your social media analytics and gather concrete insights.

Step 6: Amplify your social media content

You can reach a wider audience via your B2B social media marketing strategy if you add the following things into the mix:

• Social media ads
• Influencer partnerships
• User-generated content

An example I love is Modash’s frequent partnerships with Sophie Miller of Pretty Little Marketer to promote their software.

This collaboration gives Modash a chance to build brand awareness not just via their own organic content, but also by using other trusted voices in the same industry. These are people your decision makers trust and seek advice from. Find subject matter experts and thought leaders trusted in your industry and form influencer collaborations with them.

User-generated content is when customers and/or brand advocates proactively share how they’re using your B2B tool. Reshare it on your own social media account: It’s the best form of social proof. You can also encourage your customers to do this by offering rewards for sharing their honest reviews on social media.

When it comes to social media advertising, remember two things:

• Experiment with social media ads on the channel that has given you the best performance to increase your chances of a positive return on investment (ROI)
• Introduce paid advertising when you have to run a specific social media campaign for a business change like a new feature launch or introduce a rebrand

All these methods are paid ways to grow your social media efforts. Add them when you’ve exhausted your organic marketing strategy and need to add fire to the fuel.

B2B social media marketing is never “done”

Building a B2B social media marketing strategy isn’t a one-and-done task, it’s a recurring one. Today, you might be able to practice content creation on one platform and choose to create thought leadership LinkedIn articles. Tomorrow, as your competence develops, resources expand, and business goals move forward, your social strategy can evolve to include TikTok trends.

You will constantly iterate and improve upon your social strategy: maybe you introduce new target audiences and need to create content that caters to them. Or perhaps your decision makers’ priorities change and your content creation on social media needs to adapt to it.

Set a reminder to evaluate your strategy once a quarter. Reflect on what’s going right, what can improve, and what has changed.