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How to build a successful B2B social media strategy

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Webcertain Social
by Webcertain Social
 
19 minutes

With over half the world's population on social media, it is a vital channel through which businesses can reach their global customers. However, there is a common misconception: that only B2C companies can succeed on social media. That is simply not true, and B2B businesses stand to gain a lot by embracing the possibilities afforded by social media. This guide will explain how to build a successful B2B social media strategy. From reading this guide, you will learn how to integrate social media into your overall digital marketing efforts and how to harness its power to achieve your goals.

Table of contents


Introduction

Social media has fully entered our lives over the past decade, and currently out of the world's 5.56 billion internet users, 5.24 billion use social media. This means that over half of the world's population, which in 2025 is estimated to stand at 8.2 billion, has some social media presence. Basically, if someone uses the internet, they very likely use social media too.

With so many of us on social media, it is no surprise that brands have incorporated it into their marketing strategies. Nowadays, whether they are B2B or B2C, most brands will be on two or more social media channels. And that leads us to one of the most common misconceptions about social media marketing: it only works for B2C. As you may have guessed from the title of this guide: this is not true!

However, a good number of B2B marketers still overlook social media when creating their marketing strategy, or at least downplay its importance. Whilst most B2B businesses have a social media presence, many treat it merely as an add-on, rather than making it central to their marketing strategy. So, why should B2B businesses use social media, and how can they benefit from it?

The first big benefit has already been mentioned above. Your customers are on it! Your presence on social media will allow you to increase brand awareness, show the world your amazing company culture, build connections with your customer base and demonstrate your thought leadership.

You will also be able to provide your customers with support. Some consumers – particularly Gen Z and millennials – prefer social media as a convenient means to obtain customer care. And providing quick and effective customer care on social media can prove very valuable, with 79% of customers saying they would switch to a different provider if they found out they provided a better customer experience. On the other hand, not answering a complaint or query on social media might prove costly, with over half of customers saying they would consider switching companies following just one instance of poor customer service.

Furthermore, since social media should drive more traffic towards your website, through increased brand awareness and thought leadership, this in turn should help with your sales. Through interactions on social media, you can identify prospects and the growing integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, with many of them now embedding social media into their programs, means that sales teams can utilise social media to nurture their leads, learning more about them by looking at their profiles, and build a relationship through shared interests.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of how much your business can benefit from having a social media presence. So, how do you build a social media strategy that works for your business? In this guide, we will cover the most critical aspects of a successful strategy, from your plan to your audience, message, medium, and how to increase engagement on your social media platforms.

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Create a plan

You already have a digital marketing strategy in place. Now that you are expanding it to include social media, you must create a plan to tie it in seamlessly with your overall digital strategy and your business goals. You will naturally want your social media accounts to stand out, but success comes from them complementing all your other marketing efforts.

You should start your plan by defining your goals, as that will be how you will measure and identify success. Setting and understanding your key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you make decisions regarding content, budgets and the necessary resources to achieve them.

The first rule is to set actionable goals and be wary of vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are those shallow statistics that look great on paper, but usually hold little substance and do not impact the success of your campaign – for example, the number of followers an account has. You may look at a competitor, and their number of followers is through the roof! As impressive as that may be, it might not be the picture of success you thought at first glance. Are they the right people when it comes to the target customer? How many of those followers engage with the content your competitor shares on social media?

This does not mean that the number of followers could not be one of your KPIs. If your business goal was to increase brand awareness, then it would make sense to keep track of followers, reach or page views as measures of your success.

HubSpot breaks down social media KPIs into four main categories:

Each of these categories will have its own set of KPIs from which you will measure your success.

It is important that you revisit them regularly, because as your business goals change, so should your success indicators, and the success of your social media efforts could also prompt a revisit of your KPIs. Your initial goal may be to increase your reach through new followers, mentions or shares. But as you gradually succeed in achieving this goal, you may want to then increase their engagement or your ROI by increasing the number of leads you gain from social media.

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Define your audience

Before you start creating your messaging, you first need to define your target audience. After all, your audience will dictate your messaging. But how will you know what content or message will resonate with your audience if you do not know where you can reach them or even what they like?

Start by defining your buyer persona using audience profiling (also known as persona research), and you will learn who your ideal customer is. From here, you will be able to understand what social media platforms they use and what content they want to see. This will allow you to tailor your content to target the right audience, in the right place.

You can also gain an understanding of who your buyer persona is by using social listening, which is all about monitoring what people are saying about your brand online, whether that is on social media, forums, blogs or even articles. This will not only tell you where people are talking about your brand, but it will also inform you of any success stories that you could capitalise on, or any problems that you should be aware of and address.

Another way to discover more about what your target audience is interested in is by looking at how they are engaging with your competitors on their social media accounts. Does that engagement vary from platform to platform? That could be an indication that your target audience favours some platforms over others, and you can focus your efforts and your budgets on the ones where you know they are. Are they responding to a particular type of content but not another? Or maybe they are making suggestions on your competitors' social media platforms that are not getting replied to and not being followed up on, and you can take note of that for your strategy and explore areas where your competitors may be lacking.

You might be wondering if there are any trends regarding which social platforms your B2B audience is most likely to be on. There is a general idea that if you are doing B2B social, you should merely focus on LinkedIn. Whilst it may be true that LinkedIn is the leading B2B social platform, with over 1 billion users worldwide, that does not mean that your strategy should start and end there. In fact, Facebook is still very much a relevant social media platform for B2B marketers (especially in specific countries like Japan). According to Social Media Examiner's 2025 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 76% of B2B marketers use Facebook.

In addition to this, you might also consider the countries you are targeting. LinkedIn and Facebook might be kings of social in most of the West, but that is not true of everywhere. For example, whilst LinkedIn is popular in Germany, it is not alone in that space. It shares the market with Xing, a German B2B social platform (although nowadays pivoting more towards a recruitment portal) aimed at the German-speaking market, with 21 million users across the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

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Craft your messaging and visuals

So, you know who your audience is, and you know where to find them. With that information, you have selected the right social media platforms for your business. Will it be as easy as using the same content and message for them all? Of course not!

Each platform has its own strengths and set of rules. The same person could follow you across different platforms, and the content they will expect to see from you in each will be different. If they notice you are merely replicating the same message across all your platforms, they will likely tune out. Therefore, it is important that you tailor your style and message to each platform.

A good place to start is by auditing your posts across the different social platforms. Which type of post drew the most comments or shares? Do they differ from platform to platform? That will give you an early indication of what kind of content your followers want to see in each platform and give you a basis to focus on.

But you must also look past what is working today and understand what the trends are when it comes to social media content in the medium- to long-term. Recently, video content has increased and effectively taken over. This is very firmly where the focus of social media is now, with a report from Wyzowl showing that 95% of marketers see video as an important part of their strategy, with 89% of businesses using it as a marketing tool.

It is now easier than ever to create video and animated content, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions allowing even small marketing teams to save on costs and resources to create appealing visual content. The Wyzowl report shows that 51% of video marketers have used AI tools to help them make or edit videos.

Whatever the format, producing your own content is critical for B2B brands, as doing so demonstrates thought leadership. However, it is also important to curate content related to your field of expertise. Promote and share content from the biggest influencers in your niche, as this will again make your brand stand out as a thought leader in your field. It will also allow you to offer a wider variety of content to your audience. Most experts in B2B social recommend an 80/20 or 70/30 approach, meaning that no more than 20%-30% of your content should promote your brand, whilst 70%-80% should be dedicated to subjects that interest your audience and fosters their engagement.

But the real treasure trove of social media content is not the one you create or curate, but the one coming from users themselves, as it is generally the type of content that drives the highest level of engagement, and it is free! To encourage this, you can offer rewards, promote contests and create quizzes, asking your followers to share their results.

One of the biggest struggles B2B marketers face on social media is their lack of belief in how entertaining their brands can be on social media. Social media today, even for B2B brands, is much more than just generating leads and promoting your products and services; it is about entertaining. But, if you are like most B2B marketers, you are likely to be asking yourself: "How can my manufacturing brand be entertaining?". The perception is that B2B is too dull for social media – but it does not have to be. All you have to do is inject some storytelling into your social media efforts. There are many stories to tell, from your product, to your processes, to the people that make your company so special. This guide explains how manufacturers can employ storytelling in their social strategy, and this guide does the same for technology brands.

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How to enter conversations

Entering online conversations can sometimes be difficult, with what is often referred to as real-time marketing requiring a very big focus and quick reactions by monitoring conversations through e-listening. If done well, it can be a great way of increasing brand recognition.

Alternatively, you can also plan for these in advance and add them to your editorial calendar, creating content and engaging with your audience about subjects that do not necessarily relate directly to your brand or products but you know they are interested in. Do not go too crazy with this, however; you do not want to stray too far from your regular content, as this could come across as unprofessional and could be confusing for users. It is best if the subjects tie into your general industry. It is also fine to plan in general holidays, such as Earth Day or International Women's Day, as these are universal. So long as your topics are relevant and interesting to your audience, they will be sure to spark a conversation.

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An international perspective

Your brand wants to expand its global reach and target users across different geographies and languages, but it can be difficult to gauge what language your content should be in. Should you use the local language of the market you are targeting or is English enough? How should you organise your social media accounts with regards to international/multilingual posts? There are various options, and you should make your decision taking into account your resources and business goals. Here are a few choices:

Whatever languages, regions and countries you choose, there is one thing you should always keep in mind: content is king! This does not mean necessarily that you need to create specific content for each language and each country. You can simply adapt and localise the amazing content that you have already created. However, make sure not to just translate content from one language to another. Use native specialists who will localise your content by not only considering the linguistic specificities, but also adapt your content culturally so that it resonates with the local audience.

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Complement organic social with paid advertising

If you work in digital marketing and are involved with social, then you know that organic reach has been decreasing over the years.

With more brands on social media than ever before, the field is incredibly crowded, meaning there are a lot of brands competing for the same user's attention. Some social networks have seen this as an opportunity to capitalise on, placing a bigger importance on paid solutions if businesses want to reach their audience. Along with that, we have also recently seen changes in the platforms' algorithms themselves that put more emphasis on users seeing content shared by their connections, which has negatively impacted the reach of some brands.

So, how can you utilise organic social media and still stand out? A good place to start is to adopt less of a corporate distance between you and your audience and engage on a more personal level.

In addition to this, you should ensure that you create and post "evergreen" content, which has a longer lifespan. This content can be educational, funny or thought-provoking. It can feel hard to create evergreen posts, but remember that quality posts should not have an expiration date. And as we have seen above, posting the right kind of content is also very important to ensure it has a longer lifespan, with the majority of consumers preferring visual content such as graphics, images and videos.

But, as with most things, the most successful strategy is when you meet a point of equilibrium. Therefore, it is not a surprise that our advice is that your organic social efforts should be complemented with paid advertising.

The majority of organic posts do run their natural course and eventually fade in reach. But then you have the opportunity to select your best performing organic posts and include them in your paid social efforts. This is a great way to carry on using the great content you already have, maximising it to its full potential and bridging your organic and paid efforts into your overall strategy.

Paid social is a great way to generate leads for your business, as you can set your targeting options, so that your posts are shown to exactly the right audience. As they tend to generate more engagements than organic posts, you can also expect more clicks through to your website.

Paid social is also a great way to drive brand awareness quickly. If your objective is to increase your number of followers on a social platform, a paid social campaign focused on followers will put your brand in front of as many relevant eyes as possible, introducing your brand straight to your target audience.

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Build a community and encourage engagement

Engagement is an essential part of a successful social media strategy. The best way to foster engagement is by interacting one-on-one with your audience. There are several ways you can foster this interaction:

Done well and consistently, this will bring you several benefits, such as increasing your brand reputation by showing your audience that you care about and listen to them, to even improving customer loyalty. These will, in turn, amplify your reach through word-of-mouth, as users tend to share positive interactions with brands online.

Depending on your brand, your social media team could also work with your customer services department. A lot of customer service enquiries happen on social media nowadays (especially complaints), so if that is something that you see a lot of on your social media pages, it is definitely something you should respond to.

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Harness employee advocacy and social selling

When it comes to promoting your B2B brand on social media, there is one ace card in your pocket that you must not forget to use: your employees.

When it comes to social media, people trust other people much more than they trust brands. And, just like everyone else, your employees are on social media, and they offer you a great opportunity to integrate social selling into your strategy.

Social selling is the use of social media by salespeople to interact with leads and prospects. And it brings good results; according to LinkedIn, 78% of social sellers outsell peers who do not use social media.

But there is more to it than that. Every one of your employees can be an advocate for your company and your product. They are the biggest experts in the intricacies of your products and services. By encouraging them to share their experience and expertise, write articles and blog posts and share them with their network and engage with their connections on subjects that they care about, they will be engaging in social selling just by demonstrating thought leadership and will keep your brand front of mind.

By putting the "social" in social media, social selling will help you to show your audience what benefits you can bring to your customers and prospects and expand your network, which will ultimately build relationships that might prove fruitful for your business in the future. You can learn more about social selling in this great guide.

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Conclusion

Social media will only keep growing in relevance in our everyday lives, and B2B brands, although facing a few more challenges navigating this world when compared to their B2C counterparts, stand to gain a lot from adopting it fully into their digital marketing strategy. Armed with in-depth knowledge about your buyer persona, you will be able to create a plan that matches your business goals with a message that is tailored to them. Authenticity and consistency are two key words when it comes to social media, so make sure that all your efforts adhere to the same standard, the same tone and work towards the same overall objective. And remember that even the best plans require updating, so make sure you conduct a review every six months to adjust your social media goals to your business ones. Good luck!

To learn more about international social media marketing, click here.