B2B Social Media: Getting Started Fast

Social Media can be one of the fastest and most efficient ways for B2B brands to drive awareness and target leads. Using Social Media for marketing isn’t new but B2B organisations tend to be late adopters. Senior management teams see it as something for entertainment rather than a place to cultivate and qualify leads.

It is often overlooked because it is seen as more complicated than traditional channels like event sponsorship or advertising in trade magazines. While events and advertising have a role to play in the marketing mix, they are far costlier, less effective at engaging audiences and difficult to track.

We have seen surveys from event sponsors that show that attendees recognise their logos but don’t know what services they actually offer. Similarly, a sponsored LinkedIn post can cost roughly 95% less than a 1-page ad in a B2B trade magazine when targeting the same 6,000 executives. Organic LinkedIn posts can be even more cost-efficient.

Both these tactics, also lack targeting and have almost no way to track success.

The challenge for many B2B marketers is getting started. Agencies often push marketing platforms on them without really looking at the basics. Whether you’re being offered Marketo, Hubspot or any other content marketing platform, you still need to look at what you need to do to get started.

The platform isn’t the answer. It is a way to manage content and a simple way to bring content to market. No matter the platform, you still need a creative engine to populate your channels. They are the tools that require a craftsman to use them.

To get started fast, B2B marketers need to look at these five topics and decide how they’re going to move forward:

• Purpose: What do we want to achieve by being present and using Social Media channels? In the first instance, B2B brands should focus on creating a track record, amplifying success and driving awareness. The end goal may be targeting and capturing leads, but you have to have an active channel first.

• Story & Messaging: The story and messaging that we’re telling offline and across our marketing activity has to be consistent on Social Channels. You don’t want your tone, taglines and key messages to be inconsistent. If you’ve locked in a brand narrative it needs to come through via Social Media as well.

• Content: What do we have to share? A Content Calendar should be developed with a variety of content to reach our audiences. Each piece of content should be helpful and positive while being as uncomplicated as a reminder to meet us at an event or promoting a blog. Content should be consistent and delivered regularly.

• Channels: Where can we reach our target audiences? For B2B marketers, this is almost always LinkedIn with Twitter used to amplify and share stories. We need to be where business decision makers are present and are regularly active. That’s the value of LinkedIn. Facebook might be good for recruitment, but LinkedIn is where most buyers and sellers are.

• Tracking and Testing: Tracking what content works and drives engagement will help to refine what content we focus on. As more content is posted online, we can see what is working and what isn’t. Each platform has easy to use built-in tools that show what content is getting clicks and enables testing of different kinds of content.

Social Media doesn’t have to be complicated for a B2B brand and the results will quickly surpass the returns from traditional marketing tactics. When an organisation adds Social Media to its B2B marketing mix, they create more touchpoints for influencing their audiences.

Take a look at our B2B Content Checklist if you'd like to learn more.