To drive a solid online marketing strategy, social media has to figure in the plan of action, in some way or other. The depth of the social media plan (and priority channels) usually depends on what industry a marketer’s product/brand belongs to. It’s commonly accepted that B2C brands drive a lot of engagement and sales using different social media tricks. However, B2B tech brands use social media in a different way and for a different purpose with a focus on fewer channels, usually.

The truth is, B2B technology brands can actually use social media strategies more effectively to nurture prospect pipelines and drive sales or product demo bookings. The secret lies in knowing what to focus on and having core goals in place.

If you are a B2B technology marketer looking for ways to optimize your social media strategy, here are three quick starting steps:

1. Ensure There’s a Purpose and CTA for every post

Some brands while at the earlier stages of their business may need to use social media channels to drive vanity metrics and vanity growth (increase in followers and likes and similar such factors). However, as a brand grows in their business journey, it becomes integral to optimize every effort.

When planning posts across social media channels, having valid CTAs and purposes aligned to each post that is meant to go up on the brand’s social channels will ensure a better overall experience.

How does something like this work?

For example: A post without a CTA to book a product demo, or if it’s related to a vacancy at your company but doesn’t have the link to directly apply to the job are all wasted efforts.

Seasoned social media strategists who maintain a social media time table that includes pointers on what type of post should go on what day of the week (for example: Offer/Discount posts every Monday) can accordingly boost more value from the execution by ensuring there is a link to book the service or place an order while also measuring how well the post performed through custom coupon codes and hashtags dovetailed for that post or channel.

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2. Maintain a Social Media Calendar (and Switch It Around Often)

A brand, as a basic fundamental, should identify which social media channels they want to be most active on the basis of the industry they belong to. It’s a no-brainer that LinkedIn as a channel is useful for B2B tech brands. Then, on the basis of the resources available in terms of in-house  talent and budgets, brands can further capitalize on what other channels they want to throw into the social media mix based on priorities.

Maintaining a channel-list based on the factors above and also a time table day-wise or week-wise can help social media marketers be more strategic about their approach.

Instant, real-time posts based on current happening and trends can be added to the post schedule too but ensuring the basic framework is in place will save on time and boost output.

3. Focus on the Right Measurement and Tactics

Do your social media business pages and accounts boast of many followers who don’t always align to your target ICP?

The answer to this question should be top of mind for every B2B marketer simply because, it allows the marketing team to drive a more focused and easily measurable social media approach.

Social media marketers can work in close coordination with their marketing heads and sales heads to use the B2B tech brand’s social media channels to:

• -Engage with target accounts using appropriate social media messaging
• -Engage with the right prospects from within those target accounts (not everyone in a company has buying power afterall)
• -Build a network and community that consists of actual future buyers as a top priority
• -Add the channel into the overall marketing and prospecting outreach mix by complementing email, cold call, direct mail efforts

All of this, when done in addition to the usual social media plan of posting updates, upcoming events and activities with the sharing of different types of content assets can further help optimize the end to end social media initiative, leading to ROI down the line.

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