Social media marketing has evolved as one of the key aspects of digital marketing. Ever since Facebook launched its Ads feature, marketers have found a new way to advertise their products or services.
As of now, there are so many active social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and the list goes on where marketers can easily promote their business.. Though the functions of these networks are different, their objective is common ー ‘Connecting the World.’
Finally, social media has become one of the biggest platforms to advertise business. If you observe any social site, you might see different businesses ads appear on the wall. And most of them are B2C companies.
B2C businesses are advertising their products actively on social media with engaging content. So far, millions of B2C companies have seen great results for their social media marketing whereas most of the B2B marketers still are not sure if social media works for them.
Those B2B marketers are missing the point that different aspects of social media marketing work differently for B2B and B2C. So here, let us see what are the primary elements that differ:
Goals and Metrics
The social media marketing goals of B2B and B2C companies are different from each other.
For B2C companies, brand awareness and customer engagement is so important. They might have customers already. B2C businesses always come up with new products. And they need to make their consumers aware of the new products. So they need to measure the Reach, Ad-recalls, and many other metrics.
On the other hand, B2b businesses need leads on social media. They want people who are ready to use their products for the latter’s business. Web-traffic matters a lot for B2B marketers. They want to drive traffic to their website. Traffic and conversions are being the important metrics for them. With these two primary goals, they have to make social media strategies.
Content
Content doest Being informative is the first rule of content marketing. People don’t care about your business. So you need to give valuable information to your readers. Then they will see you as a thought leader and listen to you.
So your part is to produce informative content. Take a look on what formats of content work for B2B and B2C:
B2C
For B2C businesses, maintaining a blog helps a lot. Just make valuable posts on your blog and share them on social media. Placing Social Share Buttons on your blog is so helpful that your reader can easily share your post on social media.
Share your videos on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. Video content can get you great user engagement. As your customers want fun on social media, you can be more casual in your status updates with humorous and risque work.
B2B
A professional approach is needed on social media for B2B marketers. There are many types of content that work for B2B companies. Let’s take a look at them:
i. White Papers & eBooks
The very purpose of B2B marketing is to generate leads. You are targeting business persons who are likely to be your consumers. Generally, such people are so much interested in White Papers or ebooks. They want to know more about their industry.
So, publish eBooks/White Papers with high-quality content and more information. Such great works bring you more leads and sales.
ii. Case Studies
Your targeted users want to learn from others experiences. So, publish case studies of your existed consumers and their success. This will inspire your targeted users to try your products/services.
iii. Webinars
Webinars are a great way to show off yourself as a leader in the industry. Share your knowledge and give solutions to the problems most of your customers face. You can also collaborate with other industry leaders to catch more eyeballs.
On the other hand, you can get more user generated content through these webinars. You can repurpose the content and use for your business.
iv. One Pagers
One pagers are the new index of your business. Through these one pagers, you can clearly explain your targeted audience about your business. And preparing the one pagers is so easy. While preparing the content for the one pager, make sure you are using short and smart phrases rather than long paragraphs. Using multimedia content is more beneficial.
v. Infographics
B2B companies can have more statistical data. For them, infographics are so useful. So make a proper analysis on the current industry trends and made impressive infographics. This can generate more user-engagement for you.
Channels
As we said earlier, there are plenty of social media channels. Yet, a few of them are useful for marketing. Some of them are useful for B2B marketing and some are for B2C.
B2C
For B2C marketers, networks where common users engage more are so helpful. Needless to say, Facebook comes first in the list.
i. Facebook
With over 1.7 billion users, it is a treasure trove for B2C marketers. With posting multimedia content and links to your blog posts, you can share your business updates with your consumers. And sponsored ads on facebook do very well for B2C businesses.
ii. Twitter
This microblogging network is one of the best social networks in generating engagement. You can create Twitter contests effectively and create more engagement and generate conversions for your business.
iii. Instagram
This photo-sharing app is an amazing platform for creating awareness. Your consumers love visual content very much. So make eye-catching images and share them on Instagram. Like on Twitter, Hashtags are so helpful on Instagram as well. So start searching for popular hashtags that grab your audience to your wall.
iv. YouTube
Nowadays, people are more inclined towards video content. If they want to learn something new, they simply open YouTube to learn. Observing the statistics, 70% of web traffic is video content. So start making your videos explaining new things to your customers.
B2B
On the other hand in B2B marketing you have limitations with platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, & Twitter). Though Facebook and Twitter have way more reach in terms of audience, but in terms of effectiveness as LinkedIn. Use LinkedIn’s publishing features to share your knowledge and actively participate in the discussions conducted on LinkedIn groups. This will show you as a thought leader and generate leads for you.
Whether it’s B2B or B2C, if you want to promote your business on social media, it would be quite difficult for you to rely on manual methods. Now you have the social media publishing tools like Socioboard, using which you can easily schedule and simplify your activities.
Socioboard allows you to collaborate with savvy team members or other creators that saves your time and investment in content creation. Besides, it has a content studio, which makes it easier for you to plan, prioritize, and curate your content strategy. Accordingly, you can create and deliver engaging creatives on social media platforms.
Socioboard Features To Streamline Your Social Media Publishing
Post Scheduler
Make your creatives and schedule them ahead of time depending on the best time to post when most of your audience are active on social media.
Simplified RSS Feed
Discover most trending stories and articles in the news using the Socioboard RSS feed Reader and filter your search based on keywords, data and categories.
Manage Multiple Social Media Accounts
A single dashboard to manage your multiple social media accounts with ease. Just within a few clicks you can add or remove your accounts.
Content Curation
Built-in library with stock piles of images, with keyword based search and editing options, you can find, organise, and modify all of your social media content in one-place now.
Team Collaboration
Seamless collaboration with team members to assign different tasks and roles to lessen your burden.
Generate Email Reports
Get auto generated reports in your email that gives you the graphical representation of your social media performance.
Conclusion
These are the three elements that work differently for B2B and B2C social media marketing. However, marketers should set some precise goals and plan their strategies. Using the proper type of content on the right platform will lead you to success. Utilizing third-party social media management tools like Socioboard would return better results.
Quick Links:
NEW FEATURES ON INSTAGRAM & PINTEREST FOR BETTER MARKETING.
3 ASTONISHING PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING.
5 BEST WAYS TO STAY AHEAD OF YOUR COMPETITORS IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING.
HOW TO SET MEASURABLE GOALS FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
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