With the new year closely underway, it’s a great time for marketers to take stock of the current B2B social media landscape and consider the strategies and tactics we’ll use to engage audiences in the coming months. In 2022, social media was used by more than 4.2 billion people worldwide. That number is expected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025! Approximately half of the global population uses social media, spending an average of 144 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps.1
As the cultural penetration of social media continues to rise and evolve, it’s essential to be aware of the top trends across the platforms you use to budget your time and money toward the right tactics.
In this blog, we look at the top three B2B social media marketing trends we’re using in 2023.
B2B vs. B2C Social Media Marketing
To start, let’s quickly go over the differences between B2B and B2C social media marketing. B2B stands for business-to-business, and B2C stands for business-to-consumer. B2B describes businesses whose customers are other businesses, while B2C describes businesses whose customers are individual consumers. B2B targets professionals who make purchases on behalf of an organization, and B2C targets individuals and their needs, interests, and everyday lives.
B2B and B2C marketing primarily differ in how we communicate to their respective audiences. B2C offers quick solutions and quickly consumed content, where B2B is more about building targeted, long-term relationships and proving a product or service’s ROI for a business customer.
As specialists in B2B marketing, that’s where we’ll be focusing our attention today.
🎥 Video Marketing
A study from Cisco states that video content will comprise 82% of consumer internet traffic by 2023 (read that again!), clearly showing how important it is to start utilizing video content to stay relevant in the social media domain. If video isn’t a part of your current social strategy, you’re way past due.
Including quality video content in social media marketing campaigns generates more audience engagement, interaction, and opportunities for exposure. Video marketing often has a longer shelf life than other forms of content, especially when using a platform like YouTube, where everything is easily searchable and consistently accessible to users.
It’s important to keep in mind that long-form content is usually not ideal on platforms outside of YouTube. TikTok, Stories, Reels, and other short-form video platforms show that short-form video is the preferred choice for social media content consumption, especially among Gen Z audiences. Try creating short videos for things like blog summaries, case studies, and whitepapers, product feature demos, and new product and service announcements.
🎁 Content Marketing
Content marketing is still the bread and butter of B2B marketing, and social media is a critical element of any integrated content marketing strategy. Long-form B2B marketing content on social media can be used to build brand awareness and thought leadership while also driving traffic back to your website and contributing to SEO efforts.
In B2B, your social media followers will typically be those who are somewhat aware or interested in your products and services. This is why content like whitepapers, eBooks, and case studies do so well among professional audiences on social media. Generally, decision-makers who choose to follow corporate accounts are open to being convinced that you can help them achieve their business goals faster, better, and more efficiently. They’re just waiting for you to paint the right picture that convinces them and their fellow stakeholders to buy.
Social media is perfect for promoting long-form content and sending readers back to your website for the whole piece or to a hyper-focused landing page where they can fill out a form to unlock the download – further helping to identify the individuals you need should be targeting.
Keep in mind that while the gains from long-form content can be exponential, most pieces require substantial time and effort to produce. If you don’t have an experienced in-house writer, consider working with a professional to ensure your content strikes the delicate balance of educational and promotional.
💰 Paid Social Advertising
B2B companies typically spend advertising dollars trying to generate brand awareness among those with millions in purchasing power. To connect with that audience, it takes refined targeting. Paid social guarantees that your most compelling content offers are shown to the right people. It takes an average of eight touchpoints before a buyer is ready to make a purchase2, and social media ads are often one of the first steps of that journey.
Every relevant social media platform supports ads, and setting up a campaign is easy for any B2B marketer. But successfully generating leads requires a highly targeted approach with offers and messaging different from traditional or organic digital channels. If done correctly, paid social campaigns feel to audiences like unobtrusive, valuable, content-driven offers, rather than a simple “Buy Now.”
When crafting social ads, it’s important to be hyper-aware of your marketing personas: where they live online, their most pressing challenges, and what they’re looking for in a product, partner, service, or solution. Knowing these factors and translating them into effective ads is critical to reaching a more qualified audience and generating the greatest value for your investment compared to organic methods.
🚀 Make 2023 the Year Your Social Efforts Take Off
While these three social media trends are just a few of the tactics marketers will find success with in 2023, they’re ideal places to build a foundation of high-quality, easily sharable content and effective advertising campaigns for the coming months. For help researching the top marketing trends in your industry, creating engaging content, and developing targeted, compelling ads that reach your audience, we can help.
Get in touch with us to talk about your B2B social media marketing needs for 2023.
- Cisco. VNI Complete Forecast Highlights. 2018. https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/m/en_us/solutions/service-provider/vni-forecast-highlights/pdf/Global_Device_Growth_Traffic_Profiles.pdf
- Hoffman, Jeff. The Ultimate Guide to Prospecting: How Many Touchpoints, When, and What Type. HubSpot. Updated March 17, 2021. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/the-ultimate-guide-to-prospecting-how-many-touchpoints-when-and-what-type
- Alfred, Lestraundra. 37 LinkedIn Social Selling Stats You Need to Know. HubSpot. Updated May 4, 2020. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/social-selling-stats
