The Top 4 Social Media Platforms for B2B Companies in 2023 (and how to use them)

Social media has become an essential part of the modern business landscape, and the right channels can help businesses reach decision makers and grow their B2B brand. With so many options available, it can be hard to know which channels are best for increasing B2B social media presence. With budgets tighter than ever before, how do you decide on which platforms to focus your spend?

We’ve got a bit of advice to give in this area!

To help you make an informed decision, here are VantagePoint’s top four social media channels for B2B businesses to help grow their brand presence in 2023 — with step-by-step strategies for maximizing your results.

And the winner is:

LinkedIn. This one’s not a surprise! LinkedIn is the go-to social media channel for B2B brands. It’s an effective social media platform for networking with potential customers, building relationships and establishing thought leadership. It’s also useful for sharing content, participating in industry conversations and promoting products and services.

How should B2B companies use LinkedIn to its best potential?

• Optimize your profile. Don’t skip this step — LinkedIn prompts you to do this for a reason! Check and double-check that your profile is professional and up to date. Include a professional cover photo, as that first glance from a potential lead or contact is extremely important.
• Advertise. HubSpot cites that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead gen compared to Twitter and Facebook. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s B2B advertising platform to reach a wider audience and to generate leads. Create targeted campaigns that focus on specific industries, job titles and locations. The power of LinkedIn’s audience targeting algorithm is impressive — so use it to your advantage.
• Connect with your target audience. A deliberate cadence of activity is key! Locate and join groups and professional contacts related to your industry. Take part in conversations and post content that will be relevant to your target audience. Start your own group if you can.
• Build real relationships. Reach out to individuals and companies and connect with them through Direct Messages and InMail. They could easily become potential leads or future customers. A Forrester 2021 Global Marketing Survey found that B2B buyers engaged in an average of 27 interactions with a vendor over the course of making a purchase decision. Growing your brand through a strong social media presence takes time!
• Analyze performance. This tip is a given! As B2B marketers, we must collect metrics on everything we do. A/B test, collect and compare! LinkedIn Insights is a great tool for understanding how your content or LinkedIn ads are being received.

Runner-up goes to:

Facebook. While it’s often viewed as a consumer-focused platform, Facebook can still be a formidable tool for B2B businesses. It’s a vast platform for connecting with customers on a personal level, building a community of loyal followers and promoting products and services. While it may not be quite as influential as in years past, 89% of B2B businesses utilize Facebook, which is why it still ranks in our top four social channels for growing brands.

What’s the best way to use Facebook for B2B business?

• Connect with influencers. Influencer marketing is on the rise for B2B businesses, and most are quite active on Facebook. Businesswire reports that more than 38% of B2B companies are now exploring influencer marketing as a new lead-generation avenue. Research — then reach out — to influencers in your industry to help promote your brand.
• Utilize Facebook Ads. Here’s a fun little tidbit: the average price of a Facebook ad decreased in 2022. (How often does that happen, right?) If you’re not sure about whether Facebook’s powerful advertising platform will net results for your business, you can start with any budget you like, then increase spend when you have some stats to back it up.
• Utilize Facebook Reels accounted for a mere 3.3% of ad impressions on the platform in 2022, according to recent data from Hootsuite, but that percentage is rapidly growing. Because of this, businesses with a solid Reels advertising strategy can gain the upper hand by jumping into this ad placement while it’s still a relative novelty. There are quite a few useful tips for B2B businesses on how to get started creating awesome Reels that net real results.
• Take advantage of events. Nothing creates buzz quite like an event clock ticking down to lift-off. Create excitement and engagement by hosting virtual events on Facebook (or at your physical location!) to promote your brand and engage with your target audience. Build a whole social campaign around each event to foster hype and gain customer buy-in.

An honorable mention goes to:

YouTube. YouTube is no longer a platform for younger generations alone! According to Consumer Insights, baby boomers and Generation X are YouTube’s fastest-growing demographic. For B2B marketers looking to reach a wider audience and showcase their products and services through a visual content strategy, it provides a plethora of opportunity.

Are you wondering how to maximize your B2B social media presence on YouTube?

• Use YouTube cards and end screens. YouTube cards are interactive elements that you can place during or at the end of your YouTube video to direct viewers to other relevant content you would like to share.
• Utilize YouTube ads. YouTube advertising is an impressive method to reach a larger audience on this ever-growing platform. Focus on creating high-quality content that speaks to your target audience. Leverage YouTube analytics to optimize and measure your campaigns.
• Sponsor a video contest. Contests are an amazing tool for generating user-created content and heightened engagement. For example, launch a video contest with a nice prize where current customers showcase your product and how it helps their own business! The cost of the giveaway will be eclipsed by the positive benefit of real-life action videos of your products and raving customers.
• Promote your YouTube channel across other social media channels. This might sound like a no-brainer, but a lot of folks forget to take this important step. Tie your channels together by cross-promoting — it works!

Another honorable mention goes to:

Instagram. The extreme growth rate of the Instagram social media platform cannot be denied. Currently it boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users, with more than 500 million of them logging in daily. According to a recent Forrester study, short-form video plays a major role in the B2B buying process. By using the visual marketing power of Instagram, including reels and live-streaming, Instagram can support every stage of a B2B buyer’s journey.

How should B2B companies use Instagram to the best of its potential?

• • Advertise. By running B2B ad campaigns on Instagram, you can achieve a level of recall that is twice as high as industry standards for online advertising set by Nielsen. Developing a consistent strategy for Instagram advertising can help ensure that potential customers remember your brand at the most crucial moments.
  • Leverage Instagram influencers. Partnering with the right influencers can help you establish credibility and increase brand awareness in your target market. Look for influencers in your industry who have a significant following and engage with their followers through informative and educational content. You can collaborate with them to create content that highlights your products or services, share their posts on your company’s page, or sponsor influencer content to increase visibility.
  • Repurpose your content. As you look through your content marketing library, think of ways your existing assets might support the creation of new Instagram content. For example, blog posts and white papers can be repurposed into carousel posts. Case studies can transform into testimonial graphics. Sell sheets can be used to create Instagram Stories that share the value of your product.
  • Use your “Link in Bio” option. Despite the ability to include links in Stories, Instagram business profiles still do not permit links in post captions. B2B brands depend on the “link in bio” tool to develop webpages that imitate Instagram feeds, allowing users to access links related to particular posts. The significance of this lies in its ability to drive traffic conversions on the platform.
  • Analyze your performance. We all know this, but it still needs to be repeated: always track your performance metrics by using Instagram Insights to see what’s working and what’s not.

  Organic versus paid social media

  Although we have mentioned paid advertising as a tactic with each of the above platforms, the power of organic social media posts cannot be understated. Effective organic social media strategy nurtures current customer relationships and helps to convert new audiences by showing them your brand values. It helps to establish and grow your brand presence where people are spending their time.

  Organic posts are the basis for the majority of integrated social media strategies, serving and satisfying existing customers while also using paid ads to attract new audiences.

  Which social media channels are right for your B2B business?

  Each of our top four social media channels can help B2B marketers reach their target audiences, grow their brand presence and ultimately increase sales. However, it’s important to remember that not all channels are suitable for every business. It’s crucial to consider your target audience, goals and budget when deciding which channels are best for your business. With the right social media presence and strategy, these four social media channels can help your B2B business grow and succeed.

  Going omnichannel is a best practice among social media marketers. In fact, 89% of social media marketers leverage three or more social channels. If you want to make your brand presence known, don’t focus on one platform alone!