Keeping on top of social media trends has a range of benefits for any brand, but when it comes to B2B businesses, it’s absolutely essential.
Savvy B2B stakeholders look for business solutions because they want to get ahead of the game. If you’re not showing your audience that you’re forward-thinking and aligned with current best practices, it’s going to be much harder for them to choose your product or service over your competitors’.
If you’re looking to refresh your approach to social media marketing and develop stronger campaigns, here’s six B2B social media trends to follow in 2024.
1. Social Listening Continues to Make Waves
Social listening has been a major driving force in social media marketing for decades now, and in 2024, it’s an essential strategy to read up on.
According to 2023 statistics from The Social Intelligence Lab, while the majority of businesses that use social listening leverage social data for marketing-focused use cases, only 35% say that “their leadership fully understand and support what they do”.
When it’s likely that a lot of your competitors aren’t using social listening to its full potential, it’s important to give this kind of analytics its due diligence and make sure you’re taking advantage of opportunities where your close competitors aren’t.
By using robust tools like Highperformr social selling platform, you can build more meticulous analyses of audience conversations, sentiment, and pain points, and craft content and solutions more closely aligned with what your ideal customers are looking for.
2. Personalization is More Essential Than Ever
Personalization has become a bigger and bigger part of social media marketing over the past few decades. Today, it’s more important than ever for B2B brands who want to align their marketing more closely with individuals in their audience, and appeal more directly to their specific needs and pain points.
When it comes to B2B social media marketing, effective personalization means building a content calendar full of posts that aren’t just relevant, but future-proofed and predictive in terms of what your customers want to see.
One of the ways marketers are implementing this at scale is by embracing AI to uncover important insights in customer sentiment and behavior, then following this up with AI content creation tools to build marketing materials expertly tailored to the individual, such as posts, comment replies, and private messages.
By putting personalization at the forefront of your B2B social media marketing, and continually refining the way you study customer details and preferences, you’ll build stronger connections with your existing audience and make new customers feel more valued and understood.
3. Short-Form Video Content is King
The rise of short-form video content has been nothing short of revolutionary in the world of B2C social media marketing, and B2B marketers who catch up on this trend stand to gain a lot of top-of-funnel engagement.
According to figures published by Vidico, videos of 90 seconds or less retain 50% of their viewers, and 75% of people show a preference for video over text content when learning about products or services.
Many B2B campaigns tend to focus on platforms with a preference for detailed, text-based content where stakeholders spend more of their time, such as LinkedIn and Twitter/X. However, when the content is done right, short-form video content can be the ideal way to grab the attention of stakeholders and start them out on your sales pipeline.
Some of the best applications for short-form B2B video content include:
- Educating your audience on your product or service’s key USPs.
- Sharing customer testimonials and success stories.
- Promoting special offers.
- Sharing summaries of industry news and directing viewers towards more detailed thought leadership content.
Though adjusting to the standards and nuances of short-form content will bring some challenges if you’ve usually been focused on more traditional forms of B2B social media content, once you’ve found what works for your audience and niche, there’s no limit to the impact it can have on your top-of-funnel marketing efforts.
4. The Rise of B2B Influencers
Just like short-form video content, influencer marketing is a social media marketing niche that’s traditionally been firmly in the realm of B2C brands, but is now having a bigger and bigger impact on the way we think about B2B marketing.
With a strong influencer program, you can leverage partnerships with industry experts, thought leaders, and niche content creators to extend your brand’s reach and take advantage of other accounts’ dedicated professional followings.
Accounts that enjoy a large following through B2B-oriented content are trusted for their expertise and unique takes on hot topics in the industry. Because of this, a good influencer’s endorsement will be seen as insightful and valuable, rather than just promotional, and motivate decision makers in your target audience to find out more about what you can offer their organizations.
Remember that while metrics like followers and engagement rates are important, it’s even more crucial to partner with influencers who align with your brand values. This will ensure your partnership will lead to quality interactions with leads who appreciate your brand ethos and level of expertise.
5. Employee Advocacy is Driving Sales
As a B2B marketer, your audience is going to expect a higher level of detail and nuance when you’re letting them know why your product or service is the right choice for them. However, your social media marketing shouldn’t stop at what you’re broadcasting through branded content channels.
When 91% of every B2B sale is influenced by word of mouth, you should be doing everything possible to get individuals talking about your brand, showing a human quality behind the logo, and nurturing a more credible online presence.
One of the best ways to stimulate this kind of marketing is to create an employee advocacy program, and encourage your team members to share content related to your brand through their personal social media accounts to build a more credible, authentic, and human online presence.
To start a strong employee advocacy program, you’ll first need to identify the team members who have shown a certain flair for creating great social media content, then equipping them with the training and resources they need to post quality, engaging content related to your brand.
Using a dedicated tool like the Highperformr employee advocacy platform can be a big help in organizing your content materials, giving employees the tools they need, and repurposing one content focus so that it’s tailored to different individuals’ areas of expertise.
6. Omnichannel Experience Are Becoming More Widespread
Omnichannel experiences are quickly becoming a non-negotiable for social media marketing across all sectors, including for many B2B niches.
By embracing the omnichannel customer experience, you can create a more cohesive, unified brand identity that’s recognizable across all touchpoints, and more likely to resonate with your target audience.
Some best practices to bear in mind when crafting an omnichannel social media experience include:
- Mapping out all possible social media touchpoints and how they correspond to the stages of your pipeline.
- Connecting your social media channels to ensure a smooth flow between different platforms and other channels such as your website and email marketing.
- Adjusting tone of voice documents to each platform to ensure you’re respecting their nuances while still maintaining a consistent identity.
- Having a thorough approach to analyzing metrics on each platform so you can highlight patterns and insights that are applicable to your broader social media strategy.
With an omnichannel approach to B2B social media marketing, you’ll be able to ensure more effective personalization, brand recognition, and an all-around more consistent customer experience.
Making the Most of B2B Social Media Trends
Though there are many facets to a truly effective B2B social media strategy, understanding and applying these B2B social media trends will help you keep in-line with the competition, and show your audience that you’re a forward-thinking brand who’s worthy of their interest.
For more support with analytics, employee advocacy, and improving efficiencies with AI, sign up to Highperformr for free today!
