One of the great benefits of Dusted’s new Elevate brand and digital benchmarking tool is that it provides us and our clients with fascinating insights into the performance of leading B2B companies in specialized fields related to brand and digital presence. This gives us a clear picture of who is investing in the sector and outperforming in terms of our 11 most important brand and digital metrics, including UX, security, SEO and content data.
At the core of these digital metrics is an investigation of how well different B2B companies in each sector use social media to attract potential buyers. The combination of our team of experts and proven data analysis leads us to the following conclusion:
“Most B2B brands are underperforming and missing out on real business opportunities when it comes to building their social media presence.”
Looking specifically at the infrastructure investment sector, Elevate rates the performance of B2B companies in each field on a scale of 100. Only one company (Goldman Sachs) received a high score for social content, followed by BlackRock with a mere 55.44 out of 100. The fact that the industry average social media presence is 5.98 out of 100 indicates a huge opportunity for many B2B brands as they invest in their social media strategies. While some traditional marketers may not understand the benefits of a social channel marketing strategy for B2B users, social campaigns are certainly important in the modern digital environment. Here’s why.
B2B Social Media Marketing
Social media is equally important for B2B and B2C companies. Here are some quick facts and figures:
A report from MyCustomer.com found that 87% of B2B companies consider social media a highly successful element of their marketing mix.
A survey of 115 content marketers in B2B positions found that 79% ranked social media as their most effective marketing channel, and 38% said that if they had an extra budget next year, they would spend it on content that is valuable to their business. Problems. According to a study by market research firm IDC, 84% of C-suite and VP-level decision makers at B2B companies are influenced by social media content in their B2B sales decisions.
LinkedIn is (predictably) the most used social network for B2B digital marketing. 9 in 10 B2B companies use LinkedIn (even if your B2B company doesn’t use LinkedIn, your competitors and customers almost certainly do).
Why is social media so important, and why do many B2B professionals rate it as one of the most effective marketing channels?
5 Reasons Why B2B Companies Use Social Media
Social media is important for B2B companies for several reasons.
It helps your business connect with existing and potential customers.
It’s a proven way to distribute valuable content.
It’s a way to demonstrate your brand identity and voice.
It can be used for customer support.
It improves SEO.
Let’s take a closer look at these reasons.
Why should B2B businesses use social media? Connect with customers It’s mainstream and built into most professionals’ workday in terms of networking, and if your competitors are on social media, it means your customers are too. A strong social media presence and high engagement rates, coupled with a solid content marketing strategy, will positively position your business in the eyes of customers and B2B social media users.
Distribute your content
Content is another key metric we measure in Elevate. If you want to learn more about this, we recommend our article on creating a successful content strategy. Social media platforms are one of the best ways to distribute educational content such as articles, white papers, and blog posts. This type of communication drives potential leads to your website. Social media efforts can therefore be the first step into your marketing funnel.
For business professionals, the trust that quality content inspires is often a key factor in making a purchasing decision. It’s therefore worth using social platforms to further amplify content such as customer success stories, testimonials from satisfied customers, streams of online events, and video tutorials that showcase your expertise.
Project Brand Identity
Your presence on social media often creates a more authentic view of your company, providing a comprehensive picture of “who you are” and “what you stand for”. This applies to trips to your website and even, dare I say it, meetings at your office. Therefore, the tone and content of each social media post can essentially be part of your company’s branding (i.e., how you want to be perceived by B2B buyers, potential B2B customers, talent, and investors). A strong social media presence with a thoughtful, targeted, and relevant content marketing strategy helps build and maintain your company’s reputation as a thought leader in its field, making it an incredibly effective B2B marketing tool.
The people who benefit from this are your employees: your true brand ambassadors. If your company culture is clearly good, stories about your employees’ daily work and meaningful activities are effective content. That way, it’s easier to attract top talent to your company. Employee advocacy can also have a positive impact on customer relationships. For businesspeople, it’s an attractive factor when making a purchasing decision – after all, we prefer to do business with people who we know are passionate about their work.
Customer Support One of the most dynamic aspects of social media is the ability for customers to let you know very quickly and publicly if they have a problem with one of your products or services. User interactions on social networks are a tool that allows customers to contact your company immediately in case of problems. Meanwhile, your company has the opportunity to take control of the situation, demonstrate the efficiency and quality of your customer service, and reduce reputational risks. For many, social media is the preferred channel for customer support, so we recommend keeping it open and at the center of your PR, IR, and customer service functions.
Of course, every company, whether B2B or B2C, should try to avoid problems, but seeing how efficiently buyers solve their problems through social platforms is a big plus in their purchasing decisions. Good service and effective problem solving help build stronger customer relationships. SEO
Third-party links, mentions, and interest in a company’s content are all beneficial for SEO, and (as we know through Elevate) ranking highly in search engine rankings is highly beneficial for a business and a key component of commercial success. We’ll cover SEO in a separate post, as it’s one of Elevate’s key metrics for how well your business is performing online. Social media is a relatively easy way to actively manage, influence, and update the many elements that contribute to good SEO and keep your business high in the right search engine rankings.
Tips for Social Media Success in the B2B Space
Set your goals
Define what you want to achieve with your social media strategy. Most companies aren’t focused on direct B2B sales through social media channels, but rather on using social media channels to drive prospects and stakeholders through their customer experience (CX) journey to the top of the marketing funnel. Carefully tailored content builds brand awareness, informs your audience, and promotes trust and credibility. All these elements contribute to lead generation, and SMART goals should be aligned with realistic goals and measurable factors.
Know Who to Speak to
Those who randomly throw content into the abyss of the internet are sure to miss their target demographic. When developing your social media strategy, work with your ideal buyer personas to understand exactly who your target audience for your social media campaigns is and what kind of content will attract them, engage them, and generate qualified leads. Knowing who your content is for will also help you determine content strategy elements such as tone, imagery, and visual impact. Once the project goals are established and the company knows which buyer profiles it wants to target, the company’s B2B or social media marketer should create a content calendar that details what to post and when. This will help keep the company’s social media efforts on track.
Measurement
The surest way to determine if a company is achieving its content marketing goals is to measure the results of the efforts. Before launching a social media campaign, determine what metrics and data the company will use to measure success. KPIs that determine if a social media strategy is working include response time, user engagement, conversion rates, and sales. There is an entire suite of analytics tools that can help companies measure metrics like social engagement and provide data on how well a company’s social media efforts are working.
If your company finds itself in unfamiliar territory when it comes to analytics tools or creating buyer personas to find the right voice for your key audience, it may be a good idea to hire a social media agency. For smaller B2B companies, it may be more cost-effective to hire a social media agency rather than hiring an entire team of B2B content marketers.
