The Quick and Dirty Guide to B2B Social Media in 2023

I've worked with dozens of B2B companies with one singular goal: to make social media the main driver of business impact. That impact doesn't come easy. It requires behavior education, behavior change, and some form of risk. My clients usually think I'm crazy when I suggest some of these things, and others are finally becoming more mainstream.

The funny thing is - B2C already has a handle on most of this. But somehow, B2B companies still lag far behind. Social media is an extremely powerful tool, and to think that social media is just something to "maintain" is naive in this digital landscape.

If this is your perspective, too, it's time to step into 2023.

This is by no means a comprehensive guide, there is a lot more "meat" I could talk about. However, I hope these tips can get your social media strategy off to a good start in 2023.

?? Warning: this guide is pretty controversial. Most B2B companies wouldn't even touch this advice. But if you're brave, let's cut the BS and dive in ??

1. Make Personal Brands Your TOP Priority

Yes, I'm telling you to invest more in personal brands than your company brand.

In fact, I think 90% of your efforts should go to personal brands.

Personal brands are simply more impactful. Notice I said impactful, not important. Investing in your company brand is vital in the long term.?

Why?

1. No one really cares about your B2B brand (I’m serious! When is the last time you got excited for Salesforce's new tweet or HubSpot's webinar promotion?) People care about what your product can do for them and how you can make their lives better. But they really don’t care about your next webinar or whitepaper.
2. It's an extremely long game to schmooze the public into forming an emotional attachment to a non-human entity. Although still difficult, it's much, much easier for B2C brands to develop emotional attachments. As a B2B brand, if you put all your effort and $ into the company brand, you'll be waiting a long, long time.

That’s why you NEED to be leveraging personal brands.

Think about it…

Your best ambassadors are right under your nose.?

EMPLOYEES: Turn your employees into influencers, experts, and thought leaders.

• Give them ample, consistent training and resources
• Create an incentive system to reward them (Especially your sales team)
• DO NOT filter what they say

FOUNDERS / C SUITE / EXECS: Turn your leaders into influencers, experts, and thought leaders.

• Hire ghostwriters, videographers, and content creators for your top execs
• Hire social media managers that specialize in personal brands
• Utilize building in public model

2. Create Long-Term Influencer Partnerships That Go Deep, Not Wide

Just simply having a B2B influencer program will get you ahead of your competitors.

Forget one-time influencer partnerships. Forget volume. Do this instead:

• Find 1-2 influencers to partner with on long-term partnerships.
• Treat them like team members: add them to slack, get them bought in on the mission, meet people on the team...
• Go beyond just posting: collab on a product feature, a podcast, a product, newsletter, something
• Then, provide them with FREE content they can share out. There's nothing an influencer wants more than free content.

?? The key here is to treat the influencer partnership like partner marketing.

3. Run Experiments in Alternative Channels

Plug into alternative channels where your audience lives. The key is to find ultra-niche communities.

• Reddit.
• Facebook groups.
• Discord
• BeReal
• Quora
• Pinterest
• OnlyFans (not joking this could actually work for the right b2b brand)

Doesn't matter what the channel is. The crazier the better. As long as your audience is there. Most companies ignore these platforms, leaving them wide open for creativity. (Hint: they're often great for paid, too!)

4. Create a Social Listening + Engagement Program

Implement social listening using a tool like Awario (seen above). These tools allow you to:

• Monitor all keywords related to your product
• Monitor all keywords related to your competitors
• Listen in on conversations happening around your product

The goal here is to find potential users who either a. are looking for your tool directly, or b. don't know they have a problem, and your tool can solve it

Once you have your streams set up, answer their questions from your team members personal accounts. Not from your brand account.

Example:

user tweets -> "ughhh my notes app is so messy it stresses me out my tags are so messy"

your team member tweets back -> "ah i'm actually building a tool for this! we have a way better tag system. want to give it a go?"

Plug into every relevant conversation you can. (Hint: This is the best way to get super qualified leads on a tight budget)

5. Create Habits on Your Company Page

Your company's organic social media pages are your last priority.

But here's one rule to maximize your success if you're starting out: keep it simple. Decide on ONE reason your followers will go to the page. Use that as a singular content series.

Beginner social media goal = get audience attention

Advanced social media goal = become a habit for your audience

One-off social posts are great, but they don't create habits. The goal is to create habits.

Examples:

• a content series of tips on how to use your product on twitter.
• A "Day in the life" of your team on TikTok
• A funny ig meme page
• Daily tutorials

To find your own content series idea, ask yourself:

• how can I offer value to my audience?
• what habits to I have when I browse social?
• what series do I find myself coming back to?
• what can I learn from these series?
• what are the common patterns?
• how can I re-create that with my own niche?

Wrapping it Up

1. Make Personal Brands Your TOP Priority

2. Create Long-Term Influencer Partnerships That Go Deep, Not Wide

3. Run Experiments on Alternative Channels

4. Create a Social Listening + Engagement Program

5. Create Habits on Your Company Page

If you found this helpful,

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