Looking at the enormous influence Social Media has over us, in our daily lives, we can easily say that it has devoured us. We cannot do without social media at every step of our life, whether baking a cake, or checking into a big multiplex, or putting on a brand new dress, or connecting to an old pal… In every step, we need the social networks to make our lives go on.
Well, talking about the marketing realm, B2B marketing is no exception from the growing impact of social media. Now, social media happens to be an integral part of B2B marketing, as most of the communications and marketing promotions are done via social networks. So there are many good trends that are going to impact the future of Social Media for B2B. Let’s check some of them out.
1. Live Video and Online Video will dominate the Social Media realm
Each and every social media platforms will monetize the live streaming feature. Facebook is testing 15 seconds mid-roll video ads inside live broadcasts, which are efficient content-drivers. And with the growing trends, we can expect to see more of this from other platforms as well. For, e.g., Instagram is also in the testing mode for its own live video option. There is tremendous growth predicted in this area of social media platforms because the millennials love live video contents.
Online videos are cool ways to showcase your products and services, and thus is the favorite of many brands. Large enterprises, B2B, B2C, entrepreneurs and starts ups all alike are taking resort to online videos. And there’s no stopping to it.
So if you are in the B2B domain, and is still sitting on the fence whether or not adopt live video as a part of your social media PR efforts, then you would be missing a lot. 2017 is the time to embrace live video, because in the upcoming years, live video will be an inevitable part of any marketing campaign.
2. Social Media Ranked Low in Reliability
Well, everything comes with pros and cons. Social media too has its own flaws. Well, the first and foremost flaw is its reliability quotient. Well, social media has been considered by many as a less reliable source to trust blindly. While social media aptly works for businesses, it is a less reliable source when it comes to believing about a significant matter. In U.S. 56% journalists don’t trust social media for an issue of grave importance.
So be very heedful while sharing anything without checking the background story. This could adversely affect your brand and give your brand a bad name before your target audience. Be aware, and share wisely.
3. Facebook and its Custom Audience Feature
Facebook has been proved to be a significant audience engagement tool. And with the new custom audience feature, Facebook gives you the privilege to target people based on their engagement rate on your page. Earlier, it was all about targeting a group of individuals who liked your page but didn’t have any interaction with your posts or ads. But now Facebook has gone that extra mile of letting you choose your target audience among people who are already familiar with your Facebook activity.
For B2B public relations, Facebook can prove to be an excellent tool owing to its features and versatile nature. And the large audience it brings along, has a fair potential for B2B companies. They can even share their Blog contents on Facebook and enjoy greater readership.
4. Social Media – solely an engagement tool
Consider social media as purely an engagement tool, and not a pitch tool, at least for the time being. Because your target audience wouldn’t like to get pitched with your sales message, even when they are on an engagement platform.
Be prudent, and reach out to them via emails. You may send follow-up messages to stay in the loop, but don’t bombard your audience with sales pitch through social media. There are many ways to dramatically increase your engagement on Facebook, shift your focus to it.
5. The Twitter power
Twitter started with a great sway, introducing us to the world of 140 characters. But eventually the Twitter fatigue worsened, and we became exposed to the barrier of communication. Fast, bite-sized updated don’t suffice to the big data that is being generated each moment. Our focus has shifted towards more detailed, more interesting pieces of content, that Twitter cannot afford to fit.
However, don’t be disheartened Twitter-lovers! Despite being slow in the competition, Twitter has shown promising growth in its potential for B2B companies; journalists have stated the great potential growth Twitter will see. Many marketers still hold on to it as their favorite social network because they can easily stay on top of their favorite topic.
Hence, keep a close check on the Twitter handle of your brand. Who knows, when it starts its game as a key player in the social media realm. Customize your Twitter profile so that it stays true to your brand identity.
6. Stay active and updated on social networks
Stay active on your social media page. Sharing current and relevant posts across their social media channels can significantly help a B2B company to manage its PR. Maintaining a healthy public image for any business is imperative. And most of it depends on what the journalists write about the enterprise.
And when a crisis occurs, journalists and reporters tend to skim through social media pages to get any fishy evidence. If a company remains inactive on social media networks, and release no official statements or acknowledgment, it can mar its brand image.
So be active on social media, and consider this as one of the best B2B social media practices.
So that being said, all of the points mentioned above, vigorously points towards maintaining a good PR. For a B2B company to sustain in a competitive market, an impressive public relation is a key to its success. And most of the efforts required for public relations could be effectively made through social media channels.
Simply put, social media networks are efficient PR tool for any B2B company. Just as we discussed how can brands leverage social media for effective webinars, likewise, B2B businesses can avail social media for maintaining their public image.
So, just to recapitulate, use Facebook as an audience engagement tool. Don’t neglect the power of Twitter, rather try to increase brand engagement on it. Maintain accuracy in your posts shared across social media platforms. And lastly, stay updated and active on your pages. Consider this as one of your social media goals for 2017 and beyond.
If you have any other interesting insight to add on, please feel free to leave your comment below. We would love to hear from you as always.
