It may come as a surprise, but the role of social media in B2B marketing is directly tied to growth. It’s become crucial for B2B marketers to have a social media strategy that connects with potential leads and keeps followers engaged.
As digital marketers, we pay close attention to social media B2B marketing trends to keep our skills sharp. We do this because we know the benefits these channels have for our clients. Social media:
- Drives referral traffic.
- Expands brand reach.
- Helps us understand audience needs.
- Connects our clients with new customers.
- Provides quality data.
Still, we know some folks have decision paralysis when executing the work or simply don’t know where to start. That’s why we’re covering our favorite B2B social media marketing trends of 2023 to get you ahead of the game.
1. Be Your True Self
We’re in the age of authenticity. This is good information to have when rolling out a B2B social media strategy because 88% of consumers reported they needed to trust a brand before purchasing.
Know that when we write “be your true self,” we’re encouraging B2B brands to express an authentic tone of voice that replaces pushy sales speak with conversational language or more invitational content like event marketing.
The idea is to humanize your social voice by using your profiles as a customer service resource in which folks feel invited to participate. In turn, engagement increases, as does brand visibility and customer satisfaction. Oh, and sales!
2. Go Beyond Facebook and LinkedIn
We always perform social media audits to understand the businesses that work with our Portland-based digital marketing agency. One of the first things we notice is that B2B businesses tend to isolate themselves on LinkedIn and Facebook, forgetting the value of Instagram and yes, even TikTok.
Pro tip: don’t overextend yourself. Pick one new social network that aligns with your overall business goals and grow an audience there. Instagram and TikTok are undoubtedly worth exploring as more B2B businesses embrace them and understand their use within their space.
3. You Need UGC
The excitement over user-generated content (UGC) is one of our favorite B2B social media marketing trends of 2023. But if you’re new to UGC, think of it as content that your customers make shared over your social profiles. That content can be:
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Videos or images
- Case studies
- Giveaways
- Other customer-produced assets
Remember, UGC works because of social media’s increasing role in cross-channel B2B marketing. Currently, 85% of consumers find UGC more influential than branded content. So naturally, that influence leads to sales.
4. Show, Don’t Tell
Count on seeing more motion on your competitors’ profiles as more B2B marketers continue to use video to demo services heading into 2023. But does adding video to a B2B social strategy work? Yes—73% of B2B companies reported that video content positively impacted their ROI.
But before we discuss the platform that seems to perplex most folks, let’s first emphasize the importance of LinkedIn videos and lifestreams. As specialists in B2B marketing, we’ve seen success by coordinating video and event streams that convert.
Now, since we’re writing about social media marketing trends in 2023, we must address the elephant in the room—TikTok. Know that B2B TikTok marketing is beyond its infancy.
“While TikTok is the No. 6 platform in terms of usage by social media marketers, 62% of those who leverage it plan to increase their investment in 2022, the highest of any social platform,” HubSpot reported.
Remember, you don’t need to post videos of your team flossing or doing silly stuff—it’s actually become an excellent social network for reaching young B2B professionals. Setting aside the dancing, we recommend browsing TikTok case studies for some inspiration.
5. Paid Social Advertising Will Flourish
Love it or hate it, paid advertising will play a more significant role in B2B social media marketing in 2023. Today, 95% of B2B marketers use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to showcase their offerings, highlighting the competitiveness of growing an engaging following organically.
In our experience, social media advertising elevates our organic efforts by granting our work more exposure. It also allows us to reach 400 million professionals on LinkedIn and elsewhere.
We connect with those folks by using targeted ads based on data like location, industry, company, job title, and campaign needs. Still, it’s a lot of work for B2B businesses to run social media advertising if they don’t have the skills or time to execute.
A Portland Digital Marketing Agency Chalk-Full of B2B Marketing Experts
We are here to help B2B marketers maximize the social media trends we discussed here. If you have any questions about social media advertising or taking a deeper dive into other B2B social media marketing trends arriving in 2023, let’s chat.
