Everyone knows that today’s marketing landscape is multichannel, and reaching different audiences means engaging customers, partners and prospects across a dizzying array of platforms and in different ways. This is becoming especially true on the social media front, and focusing on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter) and your own blogs with the same old strategy you’ve had for the past year or more is no longer enough to communicate to your market effectively.
For B2B companies, there are more options than ever to freshen up your social content marketing strategy, with the goal of creating heightened awareness of your message and boosting engagement. Here are four key tips for re-evaluating your strategy and breathing exciting new life into your social media efforts.
Embrace multimedia: For many B2B companies, video is the missing piece of the puzzle. Not only does video add eye-catching visual elements to content and materials, it also allows you to present valuable information about your company in an easy-to-consume format that’s perfect for social media. It helps reach and engagement, too: according to a recent survey from Small Biz Trends, more than half of executives (59 percent), who are often decision-makers for B2B technology, agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they’re more likely to choose video.
Focus on personality! In the past, “getting social” often meant using various tools to cross-post the same tweet or update across multiple accounts or platforms; usually with a one-line call-to-action and some hashtags thrown in for good measure. But the volume of social content is rapidly growing, and ads and AI and bot content just add to the noise levels.
Standing out amid the distractions means having a personality – don’t rely just on the strength of the content to pull scrollers in; try honing a distinct voice that will make people want to follow your account and come back to it again and again. Humor is always a good tool; as are unique executive quotes, catchphrases, quirky content framing, or a unique spokesperson (and see above, i.e., video).
Expand your efforts beyond the obvious: LinkedIn, X, YouTube and company blogs have become the de facto anchors for any B2B social marketing strategy. But recently, thanks to political leanings, new interfaces and pop-culture drivers, the people you want to reach might be branching out to new platforms, or new-to-you platforms: things like Threads, Mastodon, Reddit, Substack, Instagram, even Tik-Tok. Does this mean that you need to be on all of them? No, of course not – you don’t want to court brand fatigue. But it’s worth considering whether these platforms can provide a new avenue for engaging certain audience segments in better, more high-value ways.
After all, many of these platforms might offer less noise than the old standbys; or offer the ability to be a first mover in B2B messaging in the space. Remember to tailor your messaging to each platform (and that goes back to the personality success factor).
Remember, stories sell, not products: It’s tempting to showcase your latest product launch in a tweet, or to use YouTube to highlight a whizbang feature that no one else has. But what really makes people stand up and take notice is storytelling. Take your target audience on a narrative journey – one that speaks to real-world business challenges.
Consider explainer videos, case studies, CEO interviews, scenario building or interactive infographics as ways to tell your story. Talk to your various teams, such as product marketing, sales and, of course, executives, to find out what kinds of scenarios would be best to showcase your company’s advantages.
As with everything, it’s important to strategize before jumping into any of this; do some audience research, run some trials with analytics, examine ways to implement new approaches without overtaxing your human or financial resources. Other classic best practices like building a content calendar and pre-writing calls-to-action can also help smooth the path.
And of course, always be thinking about your goals. How can you use video to advance buyers to the next stage? What about existing customers – how can advanced case studies continue to engage them after the sale, which might help them buy more from your company?
With a little ingenuity and strategic thinking, your social media strategy can help deliver more engagement than ever before – so don’t be afraid to try something new.
Want to know more about supercharging your content marketing strategy for the fast-changing social media landscape? Contact Calysto.