Is modern B2B-sales social?

Oct 24, 2019 | 5 min

Nearly half of the global population are social media users. If you wonder whether you should be active on social media, this number alone should answer the question. Should modern B2B sales include social media?

Using digital formats, online and social media should be a natural part of how you interact with customers and run your business life. So what equates to using social media effectively in B2B? It will certainly help if you are knowledgeable, relevant and helpful but not pushy. You shall never be even close to being intrusive. How you do it is not a fine line to walk; you must do it well.

LinkedIn - your primary focus on social media

LinkedIn is the essential B2B social media platform to prioritise. We have examples of B2B companies where 25% of their sales-qualified leads have LinkedIn as their source.

This article focuses on LinkedIn business-oriented content, possibilities and functionality. However, you can also apply some of my suggestions below to other social platforms.

Prospective buyers prefer to interact and do business with people who know what they're talking about and enjoy communicating and interacting with them. LinkedIn offers an excellent arena to be bounteous with your thoughts, ideas, and knowledge openly.

One main reason you are active on LinkedIn is to boost B2B conversion rates and generate leads. Your company wants you to use social media to give people the possibility to provide answers to the challenges that your target group have. In addition, your followers and those who view your content want to see that you understand what it is to be them. If you prove that you know that, they are more likely to be interested in your company.

Tailor your LinkedIn profile with your target groups in mind. You want to be credible and get instant recognition and fellowship from people who work for the companies you support or want to help. Do share, create and interact with content with a similar focus. Add your perspective on industry trends and events. And be bounteous.

Answering questions is an outstanding way to help you and your company connect with you and your company to be helpful and authoritative experts eager to help.

It would be best if you had all the answers

The right prospects and customers want you to refrain from bringing back solutions from other in-house resources (product managers, technical experts, etc.).

There is only so much you can do to reach and engage people on LinkedIn and social media. Your impact will be magnified when colleagues realise the effects of utilising your knowledge, support and guidance. Today's potential buyers seek help sorting through all the possibilities and information they can access online.

People and companies that make it easier for them and that can serve as guiding lights are already outperforming their competitors.

To be able to help potential buyers find a way forward, you must be present, active and available for interactions to make sense of the "information". Companies applying this approach help customers prioritise various information sources and reconcile conflicting information. The companies that do this reduce the scepticism that buyers have towards them. The implication is that they increase buyers' confidence when purchasing.

With this in mind, you want to focus your social media presence more on providing relevance and context around the content in people's feeds instead of solely adding to it.

Prospects are far more likely to give you the time if you can strike an instant note of relevance. For example, gaining an intro from a mutual connection on LinkedIn vastly increases your likelihood of getting a response from a decision-maker and moving a conversation forward.