Using social media platforms for a business-to-business (B2B) company is quite different from maintaining your personal account. This is even different from using the social media account of a business-to-customer (B2C) company. Many B2B companies find it hard to use social media to improve their brand awareness, and from afar, the task might appear as very exhausting.
The main reason is lack of time. Many B2B owners are equipped with exceptional skills to run the business, and they are focused on growing the company. Hence, they don’t usually have time to run numerous social media campaigns. The time required to plan, implement, and evaluate the campaign could be better spent on other areas that are more important for the business.
A good social media marketer will think of the social appeal of the campaign first: Is this particular B2B company appealing for the masses? Is it worth it to post a Facebook status or tweet that our employees are attending an important trade show or business conference?
Understanding how to effectively use social media to promote a B2B company is crucial as this particular type of digital marketing is now the most cost-effective way to market a brand.
Read on if you are struggling right now with this seemingly daunting task for your own B2B business, or if you have been given the job to manage the social media accounts of a B2B company, and don’t know where to begin.
Be Active on Suitable Social Media Platforms
Most businesses now are maintaining their social media accounts. More often than not, these businesses include those that are included in your target market. If they are on Facebook, you should be there. If they are on Twitter, you should be there. If they are on Pinterest and Instagram, you should be there, and the list goes on and on. Make certain that you are active on social media platforms that your target businesses are into. Be sure to grab their attention by posting interesting updates, and joining in on the conversation.
Share Something Out of the Ordinary
Each time that your B2B company does anything interesting, post it, tweet it, share it. Great examples include your company’s attendance to business conferences or trade shows. If your company received a prestigious award, be sure to flaunt it to the social media sphere. Take photos of the event and update your social media platforms. With this, you can increase your number of friends and followers as other businesses will see how spectacular you are.
Use Social Media as an Avenue for Public Relations
Social media can serve as a great avenue for you to channel your messages to improve your public relations. If you have recently disseminated press releases, you can copy the text of the document and post it on Facebook. By any chance that your press releases have been picked up by news agencies, you can use social media to share the links to the news article. With this, you can easily build your online reputation.
Share Interesting Content and Drive Traffic Back to Your B2B Website
Another primary function of social media platforms is to drive traffic back to your B2B website by sharing interesting content. Once you post articles, pictures, or infographics on your website that are valuable and interesting for your target market, you can share the link through social media. Once online users click on the link and stay some time on your website, it will create natural traffic, which is crucial for your search engine optimization. By doing this, you can naturally increase your ranking on search engine results.
Beyond traffic, sharing valuable content will position your company as a leader in your industry.
Share Relevant News Content
It is ideal to at least post one interesting content every day. If you will just rely on special events, press releases, or website links, you will run out of fresh content. A good way to stay active on social media while there is really not much going on about your B2B company is to share or retweet industry-related news content.
For example, a company specializing on solar panels may share an article from Time magazine about the recent developments of solar technology, while an SEO company may share a news article from Bloomberg about the latest ranking of tech companies in the world.
Find a credible source of news in your industry and start sharing their content. It must be relevant to your business, and show how much you are interested in the current trends in your niche.
Follow Relevant People in Your Industry
By being in the same loop or circle of contacts with important players in your industry, you will be updated with the recent trends, and you can also share their content for added followers, as well as to increase your online reputation. This is a tactic a digital marketing agency may employ to help grow followers quickly. By joining the conversation of these people, you can also meet companies and individuals who might want to do business with you.
