Adapt to survive was the slogan for many businesses in 2020, as the inability to do business as usual brought about a new normal. Businesses began to redesign their digital marketing strategies and social media was regarded less as a separate entity, but instead, became a widely used method to drive website traffic and online lead generation.
With over 3.6 billion people using social media globally, the way we access information and share data has been changing for some time. Social media is now considered one of the most popular marketing tactics utilised by 95% of B2B marketers. Yet, there is still room for improvement as only 3% of B2B marketers always achieve their goals.
At Napier, we have many clients who value the ROI social media can achieve but find it hard to track their results and generate leads (check out our How a Social Media Scheduling Tool Levelled-Up Our Game if this is something you’ll like to learn more about). Decision-makers within the C-suite are regular users of social media, and we’re seeing more and more B2B businesses invest their resources and budget into social media tactics.
In this blog, we explore the different social media platforms B2B marketers are using and why they are worth the investment as part of your marketing strategy.
LinkedIn is the most popular platform
Nine out of ten B2B companies are using LinkedIn. A high proportion of LinkedIn profile holders use it to showcase their work expertise and find content to enhance themselves professionally. LinkedIn is the most-used platform for both organic and paid social marketing.
96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for their organic social content distribution. Likewise, the figure for paid social content distribution is also high, averaging 83%. This alone makes LinkedIn by far the most popular social media platform utilised by B2B businesses.
According to HubSpot, LinkedIn generates almost 3X more leads than any other social networking platform. With a staggering 2.4% visitor-to-lead conversion rate and 64% of its visitors more likely to go to the corporate website; LinkedIn is certainly one to include in your social media marketing strategy.
Twitter boasts a high ROI
Being amongst the top three social media platforms utilised by B2B marketers. Twitter has an incredible 53% first to buy new product rate, making it a great platform for driving traffic to your website. The social networking platform may lack some of the uniquely positioned characteristics that LinkedIn has to offer, however, its user base does cover a wide range of personas at just about every organisational level.
67% of B2B businesses include Twitter in their social media marketing strategy. Additionally, Twitter’s vanity metrics allows you to truly monitor engagement levels for themes generated by both current and potential customers. These in return can help you instinctively find improvements and insight to generate better leads.
Business decision-makers use Facebook too
Facebook remains to be the highest-ranking social media site with 2.7 billion users. Regardless of industry, business decision-makers spend on average 74% more time per day on Facebook than any other user category.
Sure, Facebook’s popularity resides mainly as a social networking platform. However, Hootsuite estimates that Facebook’s advertising audience is around 2.14 billion and the average user clicks on 12 ads per month. 46% of B2B marketers are taking advantage of its highly engaging audience to increase the outreach of their posts and generate topics to help retarget and remarket their campaigns in real-time.
YouTube. The second largest search engine.
It is predicted that video will account for a staggering 82% of global traffic by 2022. Audio and visual content continues to increase in popularity, and YouTube is a great tool for helping businesses raise awareness, with 90% of its users discovering new companies through the site.
With over 2 billion users each month, second only to Facebook. It’s understandable why currently 64% of B2B marketers are utilising YouTube as a marketing platform, and this figure can only be expected to increase as users continue to demand new ways of retaining information. Additionally, the leads generated from YouTube are very valuable, because when selecting a video, users are 3X more likely to view something they are passionate about or are interested in.
Instagram is on the rise, even for B2B businesses
Eight out of 10 of Instagram’s 600 million users follow a business account of some sort. Instagram’s B2B business audience is much smaller than the other social media sites, however, its engagement rate is high averaging around 22.53 interactions per 1000 followers per post. It’s no surprise that Instagram’s popularity is being noticed by B2B companies, with 2/3 of marketers planning to increase its usage as a visual marketing channel.
A one size fits all approach isn’t going to work and scheduling posts is a great hands-free method, although it will not make the best use of the platform’s algorithm. Your activity and how you engage with other users content is important. Therefore, your marketing strategy should include a variety of features and media types including traditional images posts, short video feeds, IGTV videos and stories.
Podcasts are becoming the new normal
Podcast listeners are on the rise. It is predicted that there will be over 160 million listeners in 2023. As a marketing channel podcasts are a great way of provoking thought leadership because you can showcase your expertise in your industry and connect to your audience on a more intimate level.
Currently, it is estimated that 44% of senior-level B2B decision-makers listen to podcasts. Podcasts are easily assessable and unlike other social media channels, they allow listeners to gain valuable insight without compromising on their everyday lifestyle activities.
Depending on your niche, it might be good for your marketing strategy to have multiple podcast styles, for example, interviews and educational. This flexibility will help build better relationships with an audience who are actively seeking your know-how.
Social media Offers Several opportunities for B2B Tech companies
According to Articulate, 76% of B2B tech companies are utilizing the use of social media. Technical forums and discussion groups are great spaces for sharing expertise and keeping up with industry trends.
To ensure the utmost success of your social media campaigns, it is imperative that you carefully review your market position and target audience. This will generate insightful strategic decisions that will develop engaging and exciting social media content, drawing in your audiences and keeping you ahead of the competition.
At Napier, we find that B2B technology companies have the best success when implementing a combination of both organic and paid tactics to obtain high-quality leads and opportunities.
Are you interested in implementing social media tactics as part of your marketing strategy? Why not get in touch today and find out how we can help you create a consistent and cohesive social media marketing strategy.