Social media marketing is no longer the ‘up-and-comer’ in the B2B game. It’s now a key player, leading the attacking line when it comes to lead generation, exceptional customer experience and tangible business results.
Now that the industry is finally onboard with the concept of social as a strategic driver of business growth, the next question on everyone’s lips is: ‘How do we stay ahead of the game?’
The fact social is one of the most rapidly changing features of the digital landscape means B2B marketers need to stop merely reacting to changes, and start proactively evolving their offerings to provide the best social experience possible for their customers.
So don’t just ‘keep an eye’ on the social media trends listed below: start planning, convincing the board, and actively doing something about them.
1. Disruptive consumer content
For too long B2B brands have hidden behind their keyboards, content to merely schedule, promote and repeat posts. Here and there they’ll post the odd image, or even an amusing gif, if they’ve just had a strong coffee and are feeling particularly fearless.
However, as Katy Howell, CEO of social media agency Immediate Future, points out: “A few B2B marketers are at last no longer playing it safe; they are adventuring into more disruptive content and storytelling, and experimenting with visual formats such as 360 video, live streams and sequential stories.”
One such example is GE with its ‘unimpossible missions’, where it took common, undisputable sayings such as ‘a snowball’s chance in hell’, and applied them to various scenarios to prove they could be done. The conversation was maintained across GE’s social channels in the form of a competition, which encouraged university students to submit their own ‘unimpossible mission’ in order to win a scholarship.
In GE’s industry, the brand is the only differentiator, and creating a series of stories in order to trigger an emotional response from their customers is arguably the most effective way to stand out in a competitive sector.
2. The social CEO
It’s every social media manager’s dream to have their own Richard Branson. But a CEO who loves to blog, share company content on LinkedIn, and take part in community conversations on Twitter is a rare commodity in B2B. However, with social now a vital ingredient in the marketing mix, the socially savvy CEO is now longer an unattainable ‘nice-to-have’, but rather an essential tool for all social media marketers to call on when needed.
“Customers now expect to be able to truly understand the personality of a business via social media, and the best way to achieve this is through a socially active CEO,” says Phil Jones MBE, MD of Brother. “It helps the customer understand the company, it brings talent to the organisation and it also allows the CEO to directly respond to feedback, which they should absolutely fine with.”
A social CEO doesn’t only help the business connect with customers, as Sophie Barnes, global group social media manager at Xchanging, explains: “Employees are more likely to feel engaged and connected to their brand; if their CEO is seen to be proud of the company, then they will be too.”
"Any CEO who’s not active on social at the moment is missing a huge opportunity to create more personality for their organisation"
Phil Jones MBE, MD, Brother
The challenge lies in convincing the big boss to go social in the first place, which is easier said than done. Many CEOs are still sceptical about the true value of social and proving this, according to Sophie, is key to persuading senior leaders to develop a social presence. “Show them the impressions/reach rate, or a case study if you have one on social selling. Give up time to sit with them and show them the simple steps they have to take and emphasise the importance of creating their personal brand online, and owning it. Help them make it not just a business account, otherwise they are less likely to maintain it.”
While Branson is the obvious example of a senior leader championing social media for their business, other good B2B examples include Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, Sage’s Stephen Kelly, and HubSpot’s Brian Halligan.
3. Social media and ABM
A relatively new concept, the marriage of social and ABM is still causing teething issues among the bravest B2B pioneers. But the potential benefits of successfully splicing the two together are huge.
“On a paid level, companies can now target their prospects directly through social media campaigns, which allows social to support the overall digital strategy,” explains Leticia Borges, senior digital content and social manager at Pulse.
“On an organic level, ABM allows company leaders to engage on a personal level with their prospects, and community managers can build lists comprising these thought-leaders and influencers, and engage with content produced by said influencers on Twitter and LinkedIn.”
While ABM delivers some truly exciting opportunities on social, it’s still taking baby steps, which is exactly why it’s something B2B marketers need to start acting upon sooner rather than later. For example, LinkedIn is currently the only platform capable of running ABM programmes but, as Leticia warns “…paid social is definitely evolving… and we should start seeing new ABM-related capabilities very soon.”