A recent report has revealed that 84% of C-level and VP-level business decision-makers are heavily influenced by social media content when making sales decisions*.
With stats this promising, it’s no surprise that everyone wants to make the most of this comms channel and leverage their presence on social media. But with that comes an influx of marketing messages and brands competing for attention.
So, standing out is the biggest challenge we all face when it comes to running a successful social media marketing campaign.
When I first started working on social media for B2B, I remember how daunting it was to think about which audience engaged best on which platform, tailoring content accordingly and striking a balance between a consistent brand message and losing engagement by pushing out the same content. Even though I use social media a lot in my personal life, B2B social media marketing was, and still is a whole other ballgame!
Now that I’ve worked on B2B social media marketing campaigns daily for over two years, I’m still learning all the time. But, here are the top four tips I’ve picked up along the way…
- Everything starts with your audience
No comms strategy will work without understanding your audience and tailoring the content accordingly, whether that’s on social media or via more traditional channels.
How often have you seen a social media campaign that doesn’t feel relevant to your interests and the issues you care about?
Some of the best advice I’ve received when it comes to writing for social media is to put yourself in your audience’s shoes. So rather than writing about how you would like to see something, think about what they’re looking for. How can your product/service solve their problems? Why is your article going to help them? What is it they’re looking for?
- Optimise your content to fit the platform
Here, the key for me has been to consider what the audience expects to see and take into consideration what content performs well on what platform.
A conversation we’re having regularly with our clients is the importance of tailoring your content for each platform and not using the same copy or visuals identically across all channels. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel each time, of course, but there are nuances to each channel that help to engage the audience.
We’ve found that LinkedIn users, for example, are often there to learn something – whether that’s a new product, skill or solution for their business challenges. So the key here is getting to the point fast and grabbing their attention. And on X and Facebook, there’s space to be more playful. So next time you’re drafting posts, try including some puns or a snappy opener on X and see how your audience responds.
There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy, so don’t be afraid to play around with the style and then adjust as needed. We’re always looking at our own social media metrics and adjusting strategies and content depending on engagements and impressions.
When it comes to choosing the format of your visuals, we’ve learnt the importance of taking into consideration how your audience is viewing the content. Are they on a desktop or looking at it on a phone? We’ve found that incrementally more users are viewing B2B content on their mobiles (although for the vast majority, desktop is the preferred format) and we’ve run some really successful campaigns where we’ve specifically optimised the visuals for mobile users.
- Strike a balance between repetition and branding
There’s a fine line between repeating messages to increase recognition and retention, and losing your viewers’ interest because it feels like they’re seeing the same post over and over.
This particularly applies when choosing impactful visuals to support your social content. I’ve seen a lot of campaigns that either use the same visuals, or they’re so similar that I feel like I’ve seen the same post repeatedly, and ultimately, I simply scroll past them.
We’ve found that having one or two creative elements that run throughout the campaign and tie everything together works really well. It could be your brand colours, a clever design element or a template that can be reused and customised for each post.
- Review your strategy regularly
With algorithms constantly shifting, new platforms popping up and old favourites changing, it’s vital to keep up-to-date with the world of social media and constantly look at ways to ‘up your game’.
As we’re going into the new year and starting to create social media campaigns for our clients, I find it useful to take a step back and look at what worked and what didn’t, what we’ve learnt over the year and what we can change going forward to do things differently and increase engagement.
So, if you’re relooking at your social media strategy as part of your 2024 planning and would like to inject some fresh thinking and creativity to really drive engagement, get in touch – we have a team of copywriters, creatives and strategists on hand to help.
*The importance of social media in B2B marketing, 2023 – dusted.com