16 B2B Social Media Marketing Strategies for Any and Every Industry [Social Media Trends Report Data]

By rsukhraj@hubspot.com (Ramona Sukhraj)

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B2B social media marketing often gets a bad rap.

It’s treated like the strict school principal of business. It’s seen as boring and “unfun.” It won’t let you tell jokes, talk to your friends on social media, or break with tradition. (And it certainly wouldn’t let you chew gum in class if it could.)

However, if my last decade of helping marketers promote their businesses has taught me anything, it’s that these are all just nasty rumors.

B2B (business-to-business) marketing, especially social media marketing, can be just as creative, relatable, and exciting as B2C (business-to-consumer), and frankly, it has to be to be successful.

Thankfully, there are a number of B2B social media marketing strategies and tips that make it possible, regardless of your industry. Let’s talk through some of the best and look at examples from brands like Google, Slack, Shopify, and more.

Table of Contents

What is B2B social media marketing?
So, how is B2B social media marketing different from B2C?
B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy Best Practices
B2B Social Media Marketing Tactics That Work for Any Industry

What is B2B social media marketing?

To understand B2B social media marketing, you really just need to understand the difference between B2B and B2C.

Simply put, B2B means a business’ offering is intended to be bought and used by another business. It has a professional purpose.

B2C, on the other hand, refers to goods and services intended to be bought by individual consumers for personal use.

Pretty straightforward, right?

Knowing that, B2B social media marketing is when your business uses social media platforms to promote its product, service, or brand to other businesses that may buy them.

Think Shopify targeting eCommerce businesses or Slack, businesses that need real-time digital communication.

But let’s be real — it’s not like Slack or Shopify themselves are scrolling through your Instagram feed or slapping subscribe on YouTube. It’s still an individual.

So, I usually recommend my fellow marketers to think of B2B social media marketing as when a business uses social media to reach individuals who make purchases on behalf of businesses or can influence those purchases.

So, how is B2B social media marketing different from B2C?

Even though B2C and B2B social media marketing both technically speak to individuals, there are still some key differences.

And they all primarily come back to what messages and content you share.

In B2B social media marketing, you speak more about professional and organizational pain points and goals (i.e., profitability, productivity, and team morale) and very rarely about personal goals (i.e. better home life, improved health, or beauty).

B2B is also less about developing personal, one-on-one relationships on social media like B2C and more about communicating value and bottom-line results to a greater organization.

However, none of this is to say that B2B social media marketing is cold, heartless, or impersonal.

If you’re working B2B social for the …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog