Michelle Krasniak - Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies

Market research and social media choices for business-to-business (B2B) markets are somewhat different from business-to-consumer (B2C) markets because the sales cycle is different. Usually, B2B companies have a longer sales cycle, high-ticket purchases, and multiple people who play a role in closing a sale; consequently, B2B marketing requires a different social media presence.

In terms of social media, more B2B marketing efforts focus on branding, top-of-mind visibility, customer support, customer loyalty, and problem-solving compared to more sales-focused messages from B2C companies.

One key step in B2B marketing is to identify people who make the buying decision. Professional social networks such as LinkedIn, Networking for Professionals, or others on www.lifewire.com/business-social-networks-3486557 may help you research people on your B2B customer or prospect lists.

According to research by the Content Marketing Institute, more than 95 percent of all B2B marketers use some form of social media content ( https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2020_B2B_Research_Final.pdf ). As shown in Figure 3-3, B2B firms may emphasize different forms of social media than B2C businesses. In many cases, the choice of social media varies by company size, industry type, experience with social media, and the availability of budgetary and human resources.

Adapted from Social Media Examiner “2020 Social Media Marketing Industry Report”

FIGURE 3-3:B2C (orange rows) and B2B (blue rows) businesses often utilize different social media channels.

For more information on using social media for B2B marketing, visit one of these links:

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics

www.oberlo.com/blog/social-media-marketing-statistics

www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report

HubSpot ( www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics ) also offers a range of B2B market research tools, with additional webinars at https://library.hubspot.com/webinar .

As always, the key is ensuring that your customers are using the type of social media you’re considering. Use the search feature and group options on major social-networking sites to test your list of existing customers. Chances are good that if a large number of your existing customers are using that service, it will be a good source for future customers as well.

In addition to participating in general market research, you might want to try SimilarSites ( www.similarsites.com ), which not only assists with research on social media alternatives that reach your target market, but also helps you find companies that compete with yours.

Check competing sites for inbound links from other sites, as well as their outbound links, to see how they reach their customers.

The amount of research available online can be paralyzing. A well-crafted search yields most, if not all, of the social marketing research you need. You aren’t writing an academic paper; you’re running a business with limited time and resources. Set aside a week or two for research, and then start laying out your approach.

Don’t be afraid to experiment on a small scale. In the end, what matters is what happens with your business while you integrate social media into your marketing plan, not what happens to businesses on average.

Despite these statements, you might want to touch on two other research points:

The most influential sites, posters, or pages on your preferred social media: You can learn from them.

Understanding what motivates people to use certain types of social media: Make the content you provide meet their expectations and desires.

Whether you have a B2B or B2C company, you gain valuable insight by reviewing the comments of influencers (companies or individuals driving the conversation in your industry sector). For example, to see the most popular posters on Instagram, we checked out the HypeAuditor tool at https://influencermarketinghub.com/top-instagram-influencers as shown in Figure 3-4.

FIGURE 3-4:HypeAuditor ranks the most influential Instagram users.

You may be surprised to find that the most frequent posters aren’t necessarily the ones with the most followers, and vice versa.

For additional tools to identify influencers on various social media channels, check out the lists at Izea ( https://izea.com/2020/02/21/top-10-influencers ) or Influencer Marketing Hub ( https://influencermarketinghub.com/free-influencer-marketing-tools ). These sites can help you identify people you might want to follow for research purposes. You can find more information about tools for identifying influencers for each of the major services in their respective minibooks. We discuss influencer marketing more in Book 7and Book 8.

The expectation that people gravitate toward different types of social media to meet different needs seems reasonable. The challenge, of course, is to match what people seek with particular social sites.

A review of successful social media models may spark creative ideas for your own campaign.

You can dive into social media marketing headfirst and see what happens. Or you can take the time to research, plan, execute, and evaluate your approach. The Social Media Marketing Plan, shown in Figure 3-5, is for people taking the latter approach. (You can download the form at www.dummies.com/go/socialmediamarketingaio5e .)

Plan your work; work your plan.

Courtesy of Watermelon Mountain Web Marketing: www.watermelonweb.com

FIGURE 3-5:Build a social media marketing plan for your company.