To B2B social or not B2B social? This has been a topical question since the dawn of social media. Most companies today would agree that social media is an essential part of their marketing program. But with a much lower following and participation than B2C companies, not every company fully embraces the value they can get from the time and resources they spend trying to keep up with the B2C Joneses.

1. Build trust with prospects

Gartner has found that today’s B2B software buyers are spending more time online than ever before looking for solutions to their problems. It is highly likely that social media is part of their search. When they reach a company’s social media manager, they will have specific expectations. One of them will be a sense of trust in the company. Without trust, they are likely to switch to another vendor.

In a 2021 report, TrustRadius found that B2B buyers use five main sources of information to help them make purchasing decisions. A year later, in its 2022 report, it found that virtually 100% of B2B buyers want to self-serve all or part of their shopping journey, up 13% from the previous year.

Together, these two insights speak to the value of creating multiple touchpoints for B2B buyers to find content to consume along their journey. Social media touch points are logical stops. For example, the TrustRadius 2021 report found that user reviews are one of the three most trusted sources of information for B2B buyers.

When they land on your social media pages, you can help build trust in the following ways:

Post user reviews of your products and services

Post offers for product demos

Post free trial offers and accounts

Post behind-the-scenes videos

2. Make your brand stronger

It is said that social media can help build brand awareness. But this is only possible if companies try to build their brand on social platforms. Randomly posting on social media without a clear and concrete plan will not support a company’s branding efforts.

A good starting place is to have a clear understanding of the difference between branding and digital marketing. Characteristics of digital marketing include short-term campaigns, persuasive messaging, a focus on immediate results, and a focus on narrowly targeted audiences. Branding characteristics include a long-term strategy, reaching out with messages based on emotion, striving to create influence over the long term, and aiming for broad market reach.

Four of the main ways to build a stronger brand on your social media platforms are:

Identify your target groups and which social platforms they spend the most time on.

Create a strong brand strategy with clear guidelines for all your posts on each platform.

Create branding messages that focus on a mix of emotion, education, information and entertainment.

Be consistent over the long term. Remember, one of the main requirements of effective branding is taking the time to create a brand that buyers find relevant.

3. Be more social on social media

At its core, “social” media requires being social. This means creating a two-way street. Providing a place to engage in dialogue with prospects and customers is a key function of social media, but it must drive followers to take action. If you just push content out through social platforms without trying to engage, you probably won’t generate the response you’re hoping for. Increase the number of interactions on a landing page, video or other content.