B2B Social Media Marketing: How To Build a Strategy That Works

B2B social media marketing doesn’t have to be boring or overly formal. The audience your B2B company wants to reach is still human. While they primarily use LinkedIn, they also spend time on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for entertainment.

Your B2B social media marketing strategy should be engaging and enjoyable while still moving prospects closer to becoming customers. B2B companies can succeed using the same social media marketing strategy as B2C brands.

Even when targeting decision-makers and executives, your approach doesn’t always have to be overly formal. The goal is the same: you have to build a connection with your audience.

B2B marketing shouldn’t be dull. Your content should be informative, educational. Highlight your products to the right audience and connect with them on a human level as they scroll through their feeds.

Here’s how to connect with your audience and drive revenue without being overly sales-focused or inauthentic.

What Is B2B Social Media Marketing?

B2B social media marketing is sharing content on platforms like LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to reach decision-makers and buyers.

B2B buyers rely heavily on social media to make buying decisions. 75% of B2B buyers use social media for purchases, and 50% trust LinkedIn as a source of information.

Social media can drive brand awareness for B2B companies. 50% of B2B organizations use it to capture attention at the top of the funnel, while 46% say it impacts the bottom of the funnel decision.

This is why social media should be a part of the sales funnel marketing of your B2B business. The entry barrier to B2B social media marketing is low, but you will need quality content and a social media budget for the best results.

You can set up an account and share content to reach more potential customers with a small investment. But to build authority and grow your social media presence, upfront paid promotion is necessary.

LinkedIn is the top platform for B2B marketing. 84% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn delivers the most value in organic social media, and 29% also agree on Facebook.

TikTok is growing as a B2B marketing platform. 19% of B2B marketers now use TikTok for B2B marketing, which is more than double from the past year.

4 Steps To Build A B2B Social Marketing Strategy For Your Business

You have to build an effective B2B social media strategy. Our social media experts follow a 4-step approach to create an effective B2B marketing strategy. You can follow this approach to build a new strategy or update an outdated one.

1. Set Your Goals

You should have a clear social media goal for your B2B business. Don’t join a platform because it is popular. Define your marketing goal, choose the right platform, and understand your target audience before posting on social media.

Common B2B social media marketing goals include:

• Building brand awareness
• Increase in social media traffic
• Build thought leadership
• Generate referrals with gated (sign-up required) whitepapers
• Use social listening for customer research
• Strengthen loyalty through engagement

2. Identify Your Target Audience

You should know your target audience to create tailored content that will resonate with them. Learn about the industry your B2B company serves, and find the age range of your decision-makers and buyers you want to target.

An understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your company can also help you plan social media marketing ideas to position your brand as an ideal choice for your target audience.

You should also look into your competitors to see what types of posts engage their audience. But don’t copy them, use these insights as a guide for your strategy.

Understanding your audience can take time, but it will lead to a stronger engagement rate. For example, you can use a LinkedIn poll to learn about the pain points of your audience and create content to address them.

3. Create A 90-day Content Calendar

Content that gets engagement on social media is rarely an accident. Viral posts require planning that takes days or even weeks. The B2B marketing experts at LYFE Marketing suggest creating a 90-day content calendar to plan your content.

Having a plan ensures consistency, which is crucial for B2B social media. But you don’t have to post daily; posting 3-4 times a week works well and gives a positive signal to social media algorithms.

You also have to set aside a budget for social media advertising to grow your audience. Your social media advertising can include working with B2B influencers, running paid ad campaigns, and promoting your brand with email marketing.

Investing in ads is important because the “build it, and they will come” strategy doesn’t work on social media, and ads help you reach a targeted audience genuinely interested in your brand.

You can also repurpose your existing content from your website to create social media posts. For B2B marketing, blog posts, podcasts, videos, and whitepapers are best for social media.

Repurpose your existing content into press releases, blogs, and PR content and share it on social media to improve your social media presence.

4. Get Legal Clearance For Content

Your legal team should be on board with your marketing. This is especially important if you’re sharing memes or lighthearted content on social media. Also, make sure that the content aligns with your brand voice.

Social media trends can grow your social presence, but doing it carelessly can also put your brand at risk. Make sure the trend aligns with your brand values.

You can add your own twist to a trend to avoid any intellectual property issues. If you plan to share content as is, check the terms and conditions before posting to avoid any copyright strikes.

Our expert suggests that you should recreate memes from scratch and get approval before posting. Don’t use copyrighted music without a license, and make sure to check the legality of using any trending audio.

Which Social Media Posts Perform Best For B2B?

You should keep your posts simple to grab the attention of your target audience. The marketing specialist at LYFE Marketing suggests that your social media post should focus on one clear message in a post.

Your posts should directly address the pain point of your target audience and highlight how your B2B brand can solve their problem. You can use GIFs and short videos to hook your audience and highlight your brand features.

What you offer is one part of the equation. Your audience also scrolls social media for entertainment, so your post should cater to that as well.

Here are examples of content that works well for B2B businesses on social media:

Highlight Your Specialty

B2B customers want to see what sets your business apart from the competition. If your products or services are similar to your competitors, highlight what makes you different.

You have to understand that it is not always about what you offer. Share how your company impacts the community or celebrate an industry award to leave a lasting impression on viewers.

Lo-fi Vertical Video

Vertical video works well for B2B marketing on platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok. The best part is that you don’t need a full production team to make effective videos.

Sherman the CPA from LYFE Marketing, used simple reels filmed on a phone and got 3–5 times more engagement and views than most polished ones on LinkedIn.

Lo-fi videos feel authentic and connect with your target audience in ways polished ads don’t. The best part is that LinkedIn now also offers a vertical video feed, like other social platforms.

Polls

You can use polls on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Facebook in two ways. The first one is that you can use polls to increase social media engagement and keep your audience interested. The best part is that this also increases your social media visibility.

The second one is that you can use polls to gather audience insights and improve your B2B social media strategy.

Memes

B2B brands are also seeing success with memes on social media. You can use memes that resonate with your target audience to connect with them and increase engagement.

Make sure to use relevant memes in a timely manner, as they have a short lifespan. You should also make sure that they align with your brand values. Memes work for B2B brands because they show the human side of your brand and put you forward as an approachable and trustworthy business.

LinkedIn Newsletters

A strong LinkedIn Newsletter can convert up to 25% of your followers into subscribers. Your followers get an invite to subscribe to your newsletter as soon as you launch one, and new followers receive an invite when they join.

The Newsletter content appears in the notifications, feeds, and inbox of your followers. You can use them to share industry insights and updates related to your business and build thought leadership.

How AI Helps You in B2B Social Media Marketing

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help you streamline your marketing on social media. About 75% of marketers are experimenting with AI; if you’re not, you’ll be left behind the competition.

Here is how AI can help you in B2B social media marketing:

Generate Content Ideas

AI tools can help you generate content ideas and beat any creative blocks. But the output quality depends on the prompt you provide in the input. You can use AI to generate copy for social media and also jumpstart content creation.

Make sure to make changes in the AI outputs to align them better with your target audience and brand voice. Social media algorithms and your audience can find AI content inauthentic, so make sure to add a human touch before posting.

Schedule Your Posts

AI can analyze your engagement history to find the best time to post on social media. You can use the best social media schedulers for your social media posts for the best time for your audience without having to manually upload them.

Schedule your post at your convenience, and the tool will automatically post it. AI can also track your social marketing performance so you can make data-driven decisions in real-time.

AI Chatbots

You can’t check DMs 24/7, and you don’t have to. AI chatbots can send automatic replies and follow up to keep your audience engaged and make them feel valued with timely replies.

B2B Social Media Marketing Example

Mortgage Markets CUSO is a B2B company that came to LYFE Marketing for help regarding social media marketing. Their B2B audience was credit union partners, and they wanted to increase brand visibility, generate leads, and improve engagement across social platforms.

They used our social media marketing services, where our experts recommended overhauling their content strategy, optimizing for each platform, and maintaining consistent post scheduling to strengthen their social media presence.

We generated 137 new followers over four months for them on LinkedIn, achieved 2,081 impressions, increased unique visitors by 163%, and recorded 138 page views with consistent engagement of around 18–19 reactions per post.

248% Increase in Instagram Reach in 90 Days (LYFE Marketing Review & Client Testimonial)

Need Help With B2B Social Media Marketing?

B2B social media marketers need to think long-term in order to see real-world results and continue growing. Don’t focus on immediate results because it will only hamper the sustainability of your social media efforts.

We’ll help you build a B2B social media marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals, backed by our vast social media marketing experience. Don’t hesitate to contact our B2B marketing agency.

We would be delighted to help you out. Schedule a free consultation today!

B2B Social Media Marketing FAQs

What is B2B social media marketing?

B2B social media marketing is the use of social platforms to build a relationship with your target audience and existing clients. Sharing industry content, networking, and joining conversations to show your expertise help in B2B marketing.

What are the 4 types of B2B marketing?

The 4 types of B2B marketing are producers, resellers, governments, and institutions. They require a distinct marketing approach based on business size, needs, and buying behavior.

What is the 5 5 5 rule for social media?

The 5 5 5 rule is a social media strategy where you post 5 pieces about your brand, 5 sharing others’ content or industry news, and 5 that encourage engagement through questions or conversations.

What are the 7 P’s of B2B marketing?

The 7 P’s of B2B marketing are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence. You can mix them to create a cohesive marketing strategy.