90 DEGREES ASIA

Go Global. Go Digital.

B2B Marketing on Social Media

As of 2019, there are 3.499 billion people who are social media users globally¹. The average global user spends 2 hours and 16 minutes on social media each day. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest have been touted as must-haves for all businesses. More brands and organizations began to realize through intensive analysis that some platforms stood out more – depending on industry, sector and target audience. Hence, they began focusing on platforms that showcased greater ROTI (return on time invested) for B2B professionals.

When marketing on social media, the focus areas for B2B companies vary from their B2C counterparts. B2B companies are more likely to focus on relationship building, brand development and lead generation. More than half of all B2B marketers use social media to grow partnerships and gain competitor insights. They like to position themselves as thought leaders within their industries. According to the Social Media Examiner, the 2 most popular channels for B2B marketing are Facebook (90%) and LinkedIn (80%)2.

LinkedIn has successfully positioned itself or rather, was built for business interactions. The interface is streamlined and simple for B2B pros to use and benefit from. It also works better to drive qualified leads as compared to the other socials. Having said that, organizations should not discount the effectiveness of other social media platforms. Relevancy is key here. Make sure WHAT you’re posting fits WHO you’re posting for. Let’s look at the top 5 reasons why people use social media3:

  • To stay in touch with friends (42%)
  • To stay updated on current events (41%)
  • To fill up spare time (39%)
  • To find entertaining content (37%)
  • General networking with other people (34%)


Many users are looking to keep up with the latest trends and news in their industry to help with their business, build their network, self-growth and reputation. There is already a steady growth in content sharing on social media but how do we avoid content-fatigue4?

 

Post Less but High-Quality Content

According to HubSpot, there is a certain type of standout posts (which they refer as ‘compounding posts’) that will surpass the initial traffic that they generate soon after publication5. These posts may not generate ample traction at the get-go but their structure and substance are so relevant that they continue to deliver value and grow traffic organically. HubSpot discovered that the longest posts with over 2,000 words received more tweets, LinkedIn shares, Facebook shares, likes and counts.

These compounding posts serve as amazing assets to blogs and quality leads generation.

 

Give Fresh Insights

The social media is saturated with content – the last thing that you want to do is to regurgitate the same information repeatedly. It gets boring, obviously. Be a standout by delivering fresh insights, that solve everyday problems (through your company’s products and offerings). Source problems by chatting with your friendly front liners – they are the best people to give feedback on customers’ preferences and pain points. Craft content leveraging on these issues and the accompanying solutions – your customers will thank you for it!

 

Speak Directly to a Defined Audience

Brands with a large, varied market often struggle with creating campaigns that resonate with their customers on a personal level. Through segmented marketing, brands can create content that focuses on a specified target audience. Customers will start identifying with your unique propositions and selling points over your competitors who are not speaking directly to them or targeting them.

 

Ask Less, Give More

Social media or blog posts that are peppered with ‘Sign up now’, ‘Subscribe’, ‘Join for free’ (and the list goes on) can be annoying at the very least. Create content that adds value to your consumers without asking anything in return. This is not to say that you shouldn’t include call-to-actions in your posts at all. Rather, use your CTAs strategically. Customers can sniff a sales pitch and resent you for it.

Plan your social media marketing mix by establishing clear goals of what you want to achieve. Continuously analyze the performance of your campaigns in real-time. Social media marketing is a matter of trial and error and having an overview of your social media activity helps put things into perspective.

 

References:

https://hootsuite.com/pages/digital-in-2019 https://themanifest.com/digital-marketing/how-does-b2b-social-media-marketing-differ-b2c https://blog.globalwebindex.com/chart-of-the-day/social-media/ https://copyhackers.com/2016/02/content-fatigue/ Image Credit – https://www.pexels.com/search/social%20media%20marketing/

Share this article

Grow Your Business

Be A Smart Marketer

Get free online marketing tips and resources delivered directly to your inbox.

Categories

Share this article

Most Popular

Be A Smart Marketer

Get free online marketing tips and resources delivered directly to your inbox.

Most Popular Posts