Social Media is one of the many tools and avenues enabling B2B businesses to showcase their offerings and regularly connect with potential leads and existing customers.
However, with the ever-growing list of online social media platforms, it is becoming increasingly challenging for businesses and individuals to stay active and relevant on all platforms.
This is why it is essential to review, strategise and execute your B2B social media strategy in a way that makes sense to your business and your audience.
I am writing this article today to discuss this particular issue: how do you choose a venue as a B2B business and why? Generally, every company sets up a social media profile on most platforms. But then they have yet to learn what to do with those platforms.
Let’s look at some of the social media platforms out there in the market:
LinkedIn:
This is by far the most useful in the B2B industry. Many senior professionals across every sector are available on this platform and use it primarily from a business perspective.
This makes it easy for you as a business to connect with the right professionals who require your product or service and have the authority to decide whether to purchase from your company.
This is the ideal platform for any B2B product or service provider. It does work for B2C as well, but it depends very much on the kind of product or service you are providing.
X:
This platform has gone through quite a roller coaster ride over the last year. Irrespective of that, it is still a considerably significant player in the social media sector, and there is no way of ignoring it.
The platform has moved from focusing on short-form written content to exploring live audio events, where individuals can have a panel-like discussion on various topics and get the listeners involved.
If used well, this platform is excellent for both B2B and B2C. It has a great response, especially for service providers to share their experience and expertise using short-form written content, threads, and other formats.
Threads:
Threads have seen much growth, especially after Twitter was turned into X. Many entrepreneurs and business folks are experimenting with Threads and trying to understand how best to use it for their businesses.
The challenge is that there are more and more people trying to sell on this platform than looking to buy; depending on what you are selling as a business, you could build up a relationship with someone on here and sell to them.
However, for it to effectively happen, it needs to be a niche service or product focused on the kind of users already available on Threads.
I recommend you spend a little time on this platform before you invest a lot of time and effort in it.
Facebook:
I see little opportunity to use Facebook from a B2B perspective. There can be minor exceptions, but I firmly believe that Facebook is more of a personal social platform where you can potentially target individuals for B2C products and services.
Instagram:
Instagram started as a platform to showcase individual pictures of their holidays and other events. However, it has grown over the last few years to become an excellent place for businesses to engage with their audience.
Even when businesses did come on the platform, they were mostly B2C because engaging with their audience using pictures was easier. However, as the short video came into sight as well, it attracted not just more B2C brands but also opened up opportunities for B2B brands to better engage with their leads and potential customers.
If your B2B business can showcase your offerings visually (including a video of someone explaining your offerings), you can use this to engage with your audience.
Youtube:
In my opinion, YouTube is technically not a social media platform. Still, with shorts coming up and YouTube rolling out @ usernames for all users, it will become a social media platform for businesses to engage with their potential customers using short videos similar to Instagram.
Yes, it will work for B2B Businesses as well:
Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. If you dig deeper and spend more time, you can realise that there are some great platforms you can use as a B2B business to grow your business and build great connections with your existing and potential customers.
What social media platforms does your B2B business currently focus on?