B2B Social Media

It is a myth that social media only works well for businesses that sell a product or service directly to consumers. People say social media is hard in a B2B environment and needs a different strategy to be effective.

Think about it logically and that makes no sense. If you want to use  social media to reach a specific audience or to raise awareness of a product or service, the steps and the way you plan a strategy are the same for B2C and B2B businesses. The steps are:

1. Set your goals
2. Research your target audience
3. Plan how you will communicate and what content you will create to engage that target audience.

Where confusion usually arises is when we target more than one audience. Often our target can be both a consumer and someone who works at, or owns, a business. So the extra consideration for a B2B business is to think about the person’s mindset on each platform. For example, someone who uses Facebook to keep in touch with a friend or a member of their family may also be the marketing manager of a company that would like to work with you, but they are clearly not thinking about work when they use Facebook for “their” own entertainment, and your Facebook page goes unnoticed.

In B2B campaigns, the usual goals include making contact with potential new clients, building an environment where you are recognised as an expert in your field and, more generally, promoting your service or product more widely. With these goals in mind, it is better to look at X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn or, even better, a blog about topics related to your business. Taking part in networks and forums related to your industry is also a good idea.

The second ingredient of successful B2B social media activity is exactly the same as for B2C, namely that you need to create interesting content and work hard to build a “community” step by step. Consider the following, which can add value to your business:

Are you sharing content that is new?

Are you sharing content that has value?

Are you sharing content that answers difficult questions?

Are you answering the questions your audience has?

AND ABOVE ALL, STOP  USING SOCIAL MEDIA AS JUST ANOTHER ADVERTISING CHANNEL, LIKE A RADIO SPOT!

Even in a B2B world we are all still human, so bland corporate messages will not connect with anyone.