Business-to-Business Social Media Marketing
Social media is largely seen as a B2C channel. But can B2B leverage it for growth? The answer is yes. Business-to-business social media marketing is no longer simply an efficient and effective way to boost sales—it’s an essential tool in your organization’s arsenal for competing in the B2B market.
Traditionally, social media has been seen as a more appropriate channel for business-to-customer (B2C) marketing due to its informal nature and conversational tone. However, as more businesses establish a social presence regardless of their customer base, the differences in implementing social media marketing between B2B and B2C decrease. For examine, the primary advantage of using social media for both types of marketing is building relationships with customers, both current and potential. Most marketers will also agree that using a social media content calendar for planning social media messaging is helpful regardless of your customer base.
What’s most important is to make sure that your content, regardless of whether it’s being distributed via your company website or social channels, is customized to the right audience.
Engaging with Your Customers on Social Media
When you’re thinking about engaging with your B2B customers, think about your own personal experiences with customer service in the real world. Just as you would feel being in a store or a restaurant, B2B customers prefer a personal approach. The different in B2B sales is not only making a personal connection but also demonstrating to the customer that the relationship demonstrates value for the client. B2C sales can be much more automated and automatic than B2B sales. B2B sales often require more human resources, personal interaction and authentic content in order to build relationships and establish the value proposition.
Social media also allows B2B professionals to make the connections they need to boost their network while also saving time. It’s a lot easier to reach out to potential clients across the world in different time zones and make a call knowing you have a least a tangential connection to your target and they have at least a minimal knowledge of your business. Social media also helps making and developing that relationship easier in terms of both time and budget.
Using Social Media to Promote Content
B2B marketers are including more authentic content in their marketing strategies than ever before. Creating interesting content, regardless of the medium or platform, helps educate your audience on the inner workings of your company as well as presenting your products and services in a more accurate context. Social media is a unique and compelling way to tell your brand's story in fun and unexpected ways.
Which Social Platform Should I Use?
First of all, LinkedIn is your go-to for developing business relationships, which makes it an organic starting point to begin social B2B marketing, If your business doesn't have a company profile on linkedIn, you're potentially missing out on valuable and efficient opportunities to connect with new and existing customers.
When starting t branch out to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other social networks, it's important to keep your eye on the ball. What do you want to accomplish through social marketing? Social media allows businesses to highlight their products, services and available job opportunities: facilitate outreach to new talent and potential customers: and present authentic content including press releases, blogs, white papers, corporate literature and event announcements. The important thing here is the application, not necessarily the platform. By taking advantage of social marketing, your B2B business can increase your brand's visibility across networks and engage the attention of your business users.
