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Social media is a growing channel in the B2B industry.

Classically, social media was looped into brand. With few real opportunities to track and measure social media, it wasn’t seen as a channel that offered anything outside of brand awareness.

However, that is changing. As B2B companies understand more of what social media can do, it’s quickly becoming a core part of their marketing strategies for a variety of reasons.

In 2021, we polled CMOs to understand where social media fit into their strategies, and released the State of B2B Social Media Report.

Let’s check out the 5 biggest social media trends for 2022 that will change the way you think about the channel, and how it fits into your overall marketing strategy.

1. Social Media is the top-growing channel for B2B companies

With classic channels like email, SEO, and PPC losing the amplification they formerly had, social media is becoming the go-to channel for B2B growth.

We found that 82% of CMOs said that social media was their top growing marketing channel – eclipsing both their website and search/PPC.

Why is this social media trend important?

To consider social media bigger than both site and search is huge – considering these two channels in particular have been top priority for the B2B industry at large.

2. Employee advocacy is the most effective social media marketing initiative

According to CMOs, social media is working – but what initiatives within social media are the ones that perform the best?

According to 46% of CMOs, employee advocacy, an organic, earned initiative, outperformed owned corporate accounts and even paid social ads in 2021.

Why is this social media trend important?

We’re seeing that people want to engage with other people – not corporations. Leveraging your employees’ networks is the best way to amplify your brand message without having to sponsor a single post.

3. Social media’s goal is to improve customer experience

Classically, the goal behind social media has been brand awareness. However, when we asked CMOs what their goals for social were, and more put emphasis on improving customer experience.

67% of CMOs stated that they found the most value from social media when it came to overall customer experience. Another 62% found that social media increased brand awareness, while 56% of respondents said that social media helped them collect customer intelligence.

Why is this social media trend important?

We see a shift in social media from a broadcasting role to an interaction role. It’s not new to use social media as a means for customer service, however it’s going further than just support.

The focus in creating a real dialogue with customers, improving their experience, and better understanding them is a critical pivot to the way social media has traditionally been used.

4. Budgets for social media are on the rise

Traditionally an under-budgeted initiative, CMOs are allocating more budget to social media than ever before.

In fact, 45% of CMOs stated that they were planning on spending in excess of $100K over the course of 2022.

Why is this social media trend important?

Often preferring to allocate budget towards paid initiatives, many B2B organizations have deprioritized investing budget into social media and content creation in the past.

However, with the rising importance of brand and the shift away from brand-awareness-only social media campaigns, it’s clear that social is taking the stage as a channel worth investing in.

5. Sizable budgets are being allocated to organic social media

While it’s true that overall social media budgets are on the rise – a sizable portion of those budgets will be going to organic social media strategies.

In fact, organic B2B social media budgets are being raised by an average of 21%. While most meager social budgets in the past have been dedicated to paid advertising on social media channels, now organic is getting more attention than ever before.

On top of that, 84% of CMOs have planned to increase their social media budgets this year.

Why is this social trend important?

Investing in organic social media is a newer trend in B2B organizations. While most budget was allocated towards marketing channels that had clearly measurable return on ad-spend (ROAS), the ability to better measure social ROI today removes that barrier.

Takeaways

Social media is becoming more important than ever before for B2B brands. Going far beyond brand awareness, it’s finally being recognized as a viable channel.

With newer social initiatives like employee advocacy, social listening, and using social media as a means of improving customer experience, it’s becoming a core tenant of any savvy marketer’s strategy.

These social media trends are not fleeting fancies, but rather trends that will be here to stay for the foreseeable future.

If you’re thinking about jumping onto one or more of them, you’ll need a great social media platform to make managing your different social channels easy. Check out our social media management platform buyers guide for more information!

Check out the full infographic below or download it here!