Posted by So, you’re struggling with B2B social media marketing, eh?
You do everything right, from posting good content to using hashtags only to get zero leads.
People ignore your posts. Your reports are so discouraging, and it’s like you’re wasting your time. Sad.
Well, missing out on social conversions can be as simple as making minor B2B social media marketing mistakes.
Cause let’s face it:
With several B2B marketers, how will you cut through the noise if you don’t market like a superstar?
To attract social media leads, you should avoid some minor mistakes. In this guide, I’ll walk you through them one by one and the actions to take.
Using stock photos
Do you know you join 42% of marketers who prefer stock photos every time you use them? Yikes!
Stock photos turn off your audience because they’re impersonal. Some look too real. Imagine a prospect notices you’re using similar photos with your competitors. You’ll lose credibility instantly.
Instead, use photoshop or Canva to customize your photos. You can hire a graphic designer like Ahref.
Here’s one of their tweets with a customized image:
It’s okay to use stock photos if your budget is limited or you’re running a time-sensitive promotion. You can edit your photos to distinguish yourself from the competition.
Being boring
Creating boring content is the worst social media and blogging mistake.
The reality is, B2B companies post boring content to sound “authoritative” without realizing it hurts their conversions.
Whether you’re humorous, lively, or cynical, use your personality to capture your audience’s attention.
Your content can be fun and authoritative. Your brand voice can be weird but appropriate.
Here’s an inspiration from Microsoft who do their B2B social media right:
Quick note: Your followers will turn on their post notifications if you create engaging content consistently, and that’s the first step to winning them.
Hiring a trained social media manager
You know what?
Unlike B2C, it’s tough to generate the hype about your B2B products on social media.
That’s why you need a guru to help you crush social leads.
Most social media managers are trained, but they don’t have enough experience to deliver results.
B2B social media marketers with experience, on the other hand, create content with a specific purpose. They can develop effective social media marketing strategies that guarantee results.
You can hire social media marketing agencies since they have a wide pool of talent. But if you go with a freelancer, demand proof of results or gauge their experience first.
Focusing on the wrong metrics
We use social media metrics to gauge the effectiveness of our campaigns. And there’s a perfect time to use them.
First, you should set your goals. Do you want to increase brand awareness or sales?
Next, match your metrics with your goals.
If you launch a campaign to increase brand awareness, track your impressions and reach but if your campaign is sales-oriented, focus on your referrals and conversions.
Quick note: you should consider more than one engagement metric to track your campaign’s effectiveness.
For example, if your post gets lots of likes but zero comments, don’t conclude that it performed well.
There’s a reason why it got no comment. Chances are, your caption was ineffective, and you’ll get better results if you refine it.
Buying social accounts
Most brands prefer to buy followers or established social accounts, especially Instagram.
Buying accounts is illegal, and you spam your followers. Your account can be closed if they report you.
Here’s an example of a fake account:
Source: Linked In Pulse
Yes, established accounts give an impression that your brand is famous, which is good. But the shortcoming is that most of your followers are fake.
We recommend you build your social accounts from scratch.
You can use these two sure-fire ways to grow your following:
- If you’re ranking for several keywords on Google, channel your visitors to your social media accounts and use fear of missing out (FOMO) to compel them to follow your brand.
- Use influencer marketing to expand your reach, provided the influencers have a close connection with your target audience.
Growing your social media accounts from scratch is daunting, but worth it because you’ll communicate with people who are genuinely interested in your brand.
The comfort zone sin
Enjoying your comfort zone kills your B2B social media marketing.
You’ll never unlock your full marketing potential if you’re among the 43% of marketers satisfied with the leads they get through social media.
Why not set huge goals like doubling your social marketing budget to get more customers?
If you get 20 new customers monthly, but you increase your ad budget and get 50, it’s a good ROI.
You can experiment with new strategies or run contests to engage your fans and expand your reach.
Yes, it’s scary to tweak your strategy, but what if you do it and get 5X more sales?
Evolving fast
Adopting new strategies is incredible, but it has several cons. You’ll get comfortable and neglect the ones that still work.
The worst thing you can do is replicate other brand’s strategies. What if they are taking chances or copying clueless brands?
You’ll struggle with your marketing. No brainer.
If you’re getting little to no leads through social media, you should recheck your social media strategy. Then do a thorough competitive analysis of the successful brands and tweak your strategy.
Ignoring this
A study by the Technical University of Denmark shows that our collective attention span is drastically reducing.
Your audience is easily distracted and looking for reasons to skip your post.
They will scroll through their feed if your content has typos, your links and landing pages aren’t working, or your landing pages descriptions don’t match your captions.
So, do the following before you post:
- Picture how your audience will react to your content.
- Confirm you’re communicating the right message
- Check if your links are working.
- Ensure your landing pages fulfil the promise in your captions.
Obsessing over content quantity
There’s a problem if you create social media content consistently, but no one engages with your posts.
Chances are, you’re overlooking your content quality.
Remember, you’re competing with several brands, so you need the right content quality and length to boost your engagement rates.
Though there’s no perfect content length, you can test with what works for other brands.
Here’s what you should know before you post in these social accounts:
- Facebook: A study by Buzzsumo showed that shorter posts with less than 50 characters were more engaging. We recommend creating Facebook posts with 50 to 80 characters.
- Twitter: Twitter has a 280 maximum tweet length. Most Twitter users scan content. Your posts should range from 70 to 100 characters to increase your engagement rates.
- LinkedIn: Long informative content can work well on LinkedIn. Ensure you grab your reader’s attention within the first 140-characters so that they click the “read more” button. Test and get the right character length that works for your audience
Bottom line: The quality of your posts matters most, not the length.
Restricting yourself
Social media is still a goldmine.
Here’s proof:
Buffer interviewed 1800 marketers, and 58.8% claimed that social media is vital in their overall marketing strategy.
Source: Buffer
To get more leads, you can specialize and scale your marketing on one social account and get creative ways to market your brand.
However, you limit yourself. Why not test different social platforms to maximize your chances of winning new customers?
Remember, 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. It can be Twitter, Facebook, etc. You can’t know unless you test.
Previously, Facebook was the big fish. But now, most social channels have a unique offering that can align with your business goals.
You can launch your campaign on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, and get in-depth reports.
Here’s a summary of the top social accounts:
- Facebook– This is the most popular social channel. It’s great for showcasing your value and services and building brand awareness.
- TikTok– Generation Z spends more time here. They enjoy creative videos content with a human touch. You can blend your products and services with the trends to go viral.
- Linked In– LinkedIn is a goldmine meant for professional networking. Surprisingly, 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn. To stand out, identify your target audience and create unique, informative content.
- Instagram– This social channel is great for targeting the younger generation. Research shows that half of Instagram users are aged 34 years or below. Share your best photos and videos with your audience. Like Veronika Baranovska says, “show what you do in a creative way.”
Pro tip: Don’t go all in at once. Test and optimize one platform at a time. Rinse and repeat.
Switching social media management software like cards
It’s possible.
You can go with the wave and adopt new social media management software that influencers use or recommend.
Well, it’s counterproductive.
You take time to master how new software works instead of focusing on growing your business. It’s heartbreaking if the new app doesn’t meet your needs.
The truth is, most of these social media management software offers the same functionality, but the differences come in their prices and the extra features some have.
So invest in a credible app like Crowdfire and stick to it.
With Crowdfire, you’ll:
- Plan your content weeks or months ahead.
- Add posts on your social media accounts at any time
- Track your ROI and automate your end reporting
- Easily curate your articles and images for your social accounts
- Monitor and reply to mentions in social accounts etc.
Tip: Always confirm if a social media management software has the features you need before investing.
Turning a blind eye on trends
Social media marketing is ever-evolving, and emerging trends affect several business operations.
For instance, B2B brands are now employing chatbots to cut up to 30% of their operating costs.
They use the chatbots to initiate conversations with visitors or book demos for their prospects and convert them into customers.
Other brands like Jordan Range Rover use augmented reality (AR). With AR, your prospects can “try on” their products like in brick and mortar stores to increase your sales.
Trends come in several forms. And you need to keep an eye on them.
You can identify trends through:
- Eavesdropping on the new technology your competitors are adopting.
- Spying on your audience’s new chill spot. You’ll miss out on leads if you focus on Facebook, yet your audience is shifting to Instagram or TikTok.
- Checking the content form that works best for your audience. Do they prefer text or videos?
If well-executed, trends can make your brand go viral and reduce your marketing cost. You can combine it with effective lead generation strategies to win more business.
Mixing voices and tones
It’s good to use a consistent voice and tone that makes your audience know what to expect from you.
However, maintaining the same tone does not mean you communicate the same message on all platforms.
You can’t copy-paste your popular post on Facebook to Instagram and expect to get the same results.
But you can use your distinct voice and style to communicate the same message and make your post popular on Instagram.
Focusing too much on sales
Your audience is on social media to connect with their friends. You’ll bore them if you’re too salesy.
Start using the 80-20 rules to balance your value and promotions. 80% of your content should be educational and 20% promotions.
Your audience will reciprocate and buy from you if you nurture them with the right content.
For example, if you’re marketing automation software, you can educate your audience on the benefits of automation and curate content about marketing automation and ask them to buy your products.
You can also humanize your brand to boost engagement, e.g., posting funny content occasionally.
Remember, social media is all about striking a balance between value and promotion.
Posting anyhow
Posting when you feel like costs you lots of conversions.
Imagine posting on Facebook at 7 a.m., yet your followers are active at 11 a.m.
While there’s no best time for posting social media content, you can test and optimize with what works for top B2B brands and supercharge your conversions.
Here’s the perfect time to post your B2B social media content according to research by Hootsuite:
- Facebook: Post between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
- Twitter: Post between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. EST on Monday or Thursday, with emphasis on the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST window.
- Linked In: Post on Wednesday and Tuesday at 7:45 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. EST.
Test and optimize your posting time.
Forgetting DMs
It’s easy to focus on referrals and conversions and ignore your DM, especially if you’ve automated your social media marketing.
Why not use Live Chat now to connect with your customers now that 79% of them prefer it?
Source: econsultancy
Several prospects often have presale questions. They’ll flood your DM expecting a quick response. And if you delay, they’ll turn to your competitors.
You can also use DMs to:
- Create awareness and generate interest in your brand.
- Connect with influencers to promote your business.
No matter how busy you are, check if customers and prospects reach out to you via your DM.
Using appealing featured images
Your images matter.
Here’s proof:
- 93% of all human communication is visual.
- Facebook posts with photos receive a 37% higher engagement rate.
Featured images convey a message word can’t explain. And it’s the best way to grab your follower’s attention.
Say you go to a car showroom with several cars with unique designs. You’ll look at the vehicles, but your eyes will roll back to the one with the most appealing design, right?
Don’t just pick an appealing image; ensure it delivers the right message and gives your audience a hint about the content in your posts.
Trembling to ask for feedback
“If you aren’t listening to consumers, how can you be sure your newest product, campaign or brand messaging is going to resonate with your audience?” – Katherine Kim.
Asking for feedback is time-consuming.
It looks boring, so most marketers prefer to ignore it. Others hate it because they fear getting low response rates.
However, feedback is the best way to understand your audience and gauge if your efforts are paying off.
Need some proof?
85% of SMEs claim that online customer feedback has been beneficial to their business.
By asking for feedback, you’ll:
- Get testimonials to market your business.
- Make your followers feel special and strengthen brand loyalty.
- Know the social media content your audience wants and what you can improve to attract new leads.
- Get genuine opinions about your products and services.
Set aside 4 hours per week to gather feedback. You can use forms and surveys, one on one engagements, or social listening like Katherine Kim recommends.
Dodging B2B social media marketing mistakes
I’m sorry to break this to you, but there’s no magic formula for getting leads on social media.
It’s these B2B social media marketing mistakes that have been holding you down.
But by now, you know everything you should do.
If you take action early, you’ll see a great improvement in your metrics. Your audience will start engaging with your posts.
Or better?
Do business with you whenever you run promotions. Cha-Ching!$
So, what are you still waiting for? Go out there and get those leads!
With Crowdfire, you can find curated content, schedule your posts, engage with your audience, deep-dive into analytics and create custom reports. Now introducing Social listening. Try it for free.