When you think B2B Social Media, chances are you have a hard time naming a company that does it well and is known for their digital presence. 

I think that’s a shame.

Why? Because so many businesses are missing out on a powerful way to share their products and services. They lose thousands of dollars each year in potential sales by neglecting Social Media.

Let’s change that.

If you want to know how a business can win more customers on Social Media, read on!

1. Start with a Solid Strategy

Everything in digital marketing relies on creating and implementing a strategy.

B2B Social Media is no different. Start by asking answering what you want to accomplish with your Social Media, and then look for ways to wield your branding and meet those goals.

For example, if your goal is simple lead generation, you may want to consider blog content, paid traffic, or influencer marketing to help draw visitors to your website. Mapping out and embracing B2C marketing methods can start to humanize your business and expand your audience!

2. Know Your Target Audience

If you don’t know who you’re trying to reach, you’ll never reach them.

Hopefully, you already have an idea of the demographics your business targets, but you’ll still want to take some time to consider how profitable those audiences can be on Social Media. Consider surveying platforms where you’re more likely to find B2B clients (like LinkedIn or Twitter) for your audience. It also might help to see where your competitors may be finding online leads, but take that with a grain of salt.

You should also create Buyer Personas that give a succinct rundown of your audience’s information. This will help you build a detailed understanding and help you create powerful and actionable content for your B2B Social Media efforts.

3. Pick a Platform

Now it’s time to finally pick a platform for your content.

We don’t always recommend jumping into every platform all at once though. Every Social Media site has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, which means you can pick one or two that will perform better for your needs. To name a few ideas:

• Facebook is great for customer engagement
• LinkedIn plays more to B2B audiences
• Twitter can increase the visibility of your brand.

Most B2B work happens on the latter two examples, but that doesn’t make them a shoe-in for success. Depending on the nature of your business, you could see success on any platform!

4. Create, Share, Curate.

Once you’ve strategized, analyzed your audience, and built a profile on the right platform, it’s time to start the real work. It’s time to create, share, and curate content.

A painful truth of content is that no one cares about your company, they simply want to know what they get out of it. That’s why you always create useful content instead of self-promoting.

Your goal is to boost your brand authority and generate new leads, so make sure to create content that accomplishes that. Many B2B companies utilize blogs, videos, or even whitepapers to stand out from the crowd.

5. Right Team, Right Tools

You can have the very best strategy, content, and audience metrics available, but if you don’t have the right tools and team, all of it can go to waste.

Scheduling, curating, and responding to Social Media is a time-intensive task when done properly. It requires day-to-day maintenance and a practiced hand in order for your business to see results. Having an inexperienced Social manager could create issues down the line with engagement, lead generation, and overall performance.

Along the same vein, insufficient analytics and scheduling tools could leave you in the dark about how your content is performing. Marketing is all about asking “How are we doing?” Not knowing the answer to that will hurt you.

Remember, it’s a Process.

Every piece of the digital marketing machine is a process that requires time, attention, and a practiced hand. If you’re looking for new ways to improve your B2B Social Media – or any other part of the online sales funnel – start with our Ultimate Marketing Checklist.