Social media has revolutionized B2B marketing. Now an essential tool for all marketing efforts, it has changed how brands reach their customers, build awareness, and foster connections with their audiences. And businesses recognize the power of social media in driving tangible results.
60% of US B2B marketers named social media the most effective B2B channel for driving revenue in 2023. From paid advertising to social selling and analytics, the value you can extract from social platforms is endless. And it’s not just about engagement and branding – social media strategies can speed up lead generation and conversions, directly impacting your business ROI.
However, social media is also the fastest-evolving channel. As new trends emerge and fade, marketing teams must be agile enough to adapt to different formats, user behaviors, and algorithms. Keeping up with the latest trends enables you not only to maintain a fresh online presence but also to be able to capitalize on emerging opportunities.
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B2B Social Media: Where Is Your Audience Now?
Since the vast majority of B2B buyers are increasingly using social media to find solutions, crafting a compelling and impactful social media marketing strategy is vital to your marketing success. After all, if you don’t stand out on social media, you’re running the risk of low brand awareness and handing over the spotlight to your competitors.
But, for B2B social media managers, cutting through the noise on social media can be challenging. The first step to a successful social media strategy is finding the right platforms to reach your audience:
- LinkedIn: With over 64 million decision-makers and thought leaders on LinkedIn, this platform is prevalent for B2B marketing strategies and lead generation.
- X (formally Twitter): B2B marketers leverage X to join conversations with prospects and customers and stay on top of industry news and trends.
- YouTube: Allowing you to upload long videos, YouTube is perfect for educating your audiences with Q&As, webinars, and video tutorials for product walkthroughs.
- Facebook: With the ability to refine your audience targeting with Facebook Ads and create Facebook groups for customer support, Facebook is another popular platform for B2B marketers to raise brand awareness and build an online community.
- Instagram: When sharing engaging images and videos, Instagram is a great platform to promote your company culture and share bite-sized content such as tips, tricks, and market insights.
- TikTok: With its surge in popularity, TikTok is also emerging as a powerful platform for B2B marketers. TikTok’s fun and engaging videos will help you stand out to your audience as a memorable brand, build connections, and expand your reach.
7 Top B2B Social Media Trends
1. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing involves using relevant social media leaders (people with a high following) for your brand to promote your product or service to their refined audiences. Though most commonly linked with B2C, influencer marketing can be just as fruitful in the B2B world. 94% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is an effective strategy for B2B businesses.
This trend offers you a unique opportunity to access networks and audiences you couldn’t reach with your corporate profiles alone. Since buyers believe recommendations from people they trust, you can leverage influencer marketing as an effective strategy to boost brand awareness, expand your reach to new audiences, and build a credible brand perception.
To get it right, first, outline your buyer persona and conduct market research to identify relevant influencers in your market that have a community of followers that fit this persona. Then, reach out to your chosen influencers with compelling outreach that prioritizes relationship-building over selling your product. For optimal results, educate your influencers about your brand to help them understand your audience’s pain points and desires so they can accurately promote your product in a way that resonates with their following.
2. Short-form video content
Short-form videos are an engaging and interactive way to grab your audience’s attention with easily digestible content while they scroll through their social media feeds. B2B marketers can leverage video content to educate their audience with industry tips, share market insights, and showcase product updates. You can even repurpose your webinar content into short video snippets to promote on your social media platforms or highlight the key takeaways from your company’s latest blog post to drive traffic to your website.
You can use short-form video content across LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook. Although there’s no rulebook on which video topics should go on each platform, we recommend using platforms like LinkedIn for more educational content and platforms like Instagram for company culture. Ultimately, each B2B company will have different processes in place, and you can experiment with different approaches to find the optimal strategy for your company.
3. Employee advocacy
B2B buyers want to hear from people rather than brands when making decisions, especially a purchasing decision. Realizing this, companies have incorporated employee advocacy programs into their social media strategy to reach more prospects.
The results are no surprise as to why employee advocacy is becoming popular: 79% of businesses reported more online visibility after implementing a formal employee advocacy program, and 65% reported increased brand recognition. LinkedIn, the most popular online platform for B2B, could be a good start for your employee advocacy efforts.
Source: Hinge Marketing
By leveraging your employees’ networks, you can expand your reach to new audiences, attract more prospects to your brand, and build trust and credibility. In addition, you can empower your sales team with the content they need to engage in social selling. Creating carefully crafted and relevant content to attract these buyers can make your employee advocacy strategy even more efficient.
4. Community building
Online communities are a powerful way to build sustainable brand loyalty and trust, so it’s worth looking into this trend if you aren’t leveraging it already. Building an online community cultivates connections, builds trust, loyalty, and brand recognition, but also deepens your understanding of your audience, helping with inbound lead generation.
More often than not, the first place buyers go to research a brand is social media. Proving you prioritize customer experience and engage in customer conversations online will make your brand much more attractive to prospects. When it comes down to a purchasing decision, something as simple as community building and what it demonstrates about your company values could be the make-or-break factor.
Facebook is a solid social media platform to focus your community-building efforts. It offers features like Groups or Pages, facilitating the creation of dedicated spaces for B2B communities to share insights, discuss industry trends, and connect. The platform supports informal interactions, enabling professionals to connect personally, which can benefit relationship-building within a business context.
5. User-generated content
Incorporating user-generated content (UGC) into your strategy is integral to winning the trust and attention of potential prospects. You can include several types of UGC in your website and social media posts, such as reviews, testimonials, and case studies. Encouraging your customers to share their success stories will also give you a constant stream of diverse content that speaks directly to your audience.
This trend is particularly effective on the social media channels B2B buyers are researching products, such as LinkedIn and X. By incorporating UGC into these channels, B2B companies can harness the power of peer recommendations, build a stronger and more connected online community, and grab the attention of B2B buyers actively looking for a solution.
6. Purpose-driven marketing
Customers are becoming more conscious when purchasing products, making them more likely to buy from companies that demonstrate devotion to corporate social responsibility. Purpose-driven marketing aligns a company brand with a larger, meaningful cause beyond selling a product or service.
The goal is to connect with prospects and customers more deeply by demonstrating a commitment to social or environmental issues and conveying a sense of shared values. By engaging with customers emotionally, you can humanize your brand and create a positive connection with your target audience, fostering brand loyalty.
If you have purpose-driven initiatives, you can incorporate this into your social media strategies across various platforms by announcing causes your company is supporting and the impacts of your initiatives on society.
7. AI and automation
AI is everywhere – including social media. When juggling various marketing responsibilities, AI and automation can help you plan and execute your tasks efficiently under time constraints. By automating repetitive tasks and benefiting from AI’s capabilities to inspire new ideas, you can elevate your marketing strategy and boost the impact of your results.
Leveraging AI and automation tools can help you jump on trends as they rise and stay ahead of your competitors. Just ensure you add a solid level of personalization to every engagement to help you continue to humanize your brand and build personal connections with your audience.
How To Effectively Measure The Impact of Your B2B Social Media Strategies
Social media analytics is your secret weapon for unveiling your audience’s interests and discovering which content and trends resonate most with them.
Tracking engagement metrics like comments, likes, clicks, and shares can help you measure the interactions between your audience and your content. By monitoring your engagement rate (the number of engagements compared to your overall reach), you can understand which topics and strategies are most successful for your brand.
You should also keep an eye on who is interacting with your content and following you – if you’re attracting the wrong audience to your brand or your engagements are high, but from the wrong audience, you might want to rethink your strategy.
With social media analytics tools like Oktopost, you can easily centralize your data and spot patterns in your audience’s behavior. You can also accurately measure your social media ROI, track performance, and ensure your work drives positive results.
Harness Social Media Trends to Boost Your Strategy
From influencer marketing to employee advocacy, AI, and automation, each trend offers unique avenues for engagement and connection with prospects. Incorporating these trends will ensure your marketing strategy remains relevant and resonates with your audience.
By tracking social media analytics, you can follow the performance of your social media strategy and optimize it for optimal results.
To learn more about harnessing social data, contact us today.
