Accurate targeting in B2B social media

Have you ever shared something exciting with someone, then felt let down or disappointed when they didn’t share your same level of excitement?

Let’s say you’re excited about a new pair of running shoes you bought. When you share this news with your book club friends, they simply smile and nod. But when you tell your running friends, not only are they excited, but they want to hear all about how your new shoes perform on the track.

Which audience was able to benefit more from your information? In this case, sharing your news at the gym was the better option, since this audience was receptive, engaged, and invested in the outcome.

When you have something important to share, the key to getting people to listen and pay attention to you is finding like-minded individuals who can benefit from your information. These people may share your same interests, or your same goals.

This same rule applies to managing a B2B social media campaign. The key to succeeding in B2B social media? Knowing how to find and identify your target audience!

Why Finding Your Audience is Important

When you’re delivering news and content to the wrong audience, your information falls on deaf ears. You may be using amazing social media strategies, but they’ll have little to no effect if your posts are not being seen by your audience.

Remember the case of the running shoes? You want your target audience—which are businesses that can benefit from your products and services—to share your same level of excitement about updates related to your industry.

This can have a positive impact on conversion and your bottom line, especially when your audience shares your social media posts with their own channels to increase engagement.

Finding your audience in B2B social media is important because it allows your brand to influence, reach, and network with businesses that can benefit from your services. The higher the value you deliver in your social media posts, the more your content will resonate with your audience and their followers.

Plus, you want other businesses to get excited about your brand, products, and services!

And to do that, you must know how to find and identify your audience, along with their favorite social media channels.

Managing a B2B social media campaign is much like managing a B2C campaign. But the key to succeeding with B2B social media involves choosing the right platforms on which your audience is spending their time.

Here are tips that can help your business find its audience in the B2B social media sphere.

Know Your Priorities

What does your business hope to accomplish using social media? Generating new leads should be one of your top priorities. In fact, research shows that businesses experience a 24 percent increase in revenue when using social media specifically to generate new leads, regardless of whether those companies are B2B or B2C.

One of the best social media channels to use for B2B lead generation is LinkedIn. This platform allows your business to create pages that showcase its products and services—which, according to LinkedIn, can help your business develop long-term relationships with specific audiences.

Join LinkedIn Groups to network with industry peers and leaders in your niche or industry. You can also take advantage of the LinkedIn’s advanced search option to find new leads using criteria such as past company, school, and language.

Go Where Your Audience Goes

Find out where your audience spends their time, and where they’re most active. These are the channels you’ll want to invest the most time in when marketing to your audience.

Get started by searching for existing and potential clients on various social media channels. Then, review the activity on their social media feeds to confirm the businesses use these channels regularly.

For instance, if your customers use Instagram but haven’t shared photos on these accounts for several weeks or months, consider skipping Instagram and establishing your presence on more lucrative platforms.

Use a social media reporting tool such as MavSocial to run analysis on your audience demographics and follower trends. This provides you with location data about your audience, as well as job titles and industries when using the tool with platforms such as LinkedIn.

MavSocial also provides other insightful information about your audience that can help you find the right social media channels.

While most users may consider Facebook and Twitter their favorite go-to social media platforms, these channels may not be ideal for your business if this isn’t where your audience spends its time.

But if the businesses you’re trying to reach are spending their time on LinkedIn or listening to podcasts, then these platforms are where you should be spending your time.

Creep Your Competitors

Spend time “creeping,” or stalking your competitors on social media to learn more about the platforms they use, too! This gives you a chance to review their activity, and see the type of posts they share that generate the most engagement.

Note the frequency at which your competitors post, and the types of posts that generate the most likes and shares. Then, apply those takeaways to your own B2B social media strategy.

 

Decide on the Content You’ll Share

What type of content do you plan on sharing most often across social media? Another key to finding your audience in B2B social media is knowing which platforms are most receptive to certain types of content.

For instance, if you plan on sharing case studies and industry news on a consistent basis, then LinkedIn, Twitter, and SlideShare may be your ideal channels. If you plan on sharing videos, consider using YouTube, Instagram, or Vine—but only if your B2B audience resides on these platforms.

Want your business to establish itself as a reliable and trusted industry leader? Consider sharing company views, thoughts, and editorial content on LinkedIn, and expose your brand to millions of users.

Having a good general idea about the type of content you plan on sharing will guide you toward finding the right platform, along with your intended audience.

 

Survey Your Customers

If all else fails and you’re still struggling with identifying your audience in B2B social media, simply ask your customers, or target audience, where they spend the most time.

Send an email and ask which channels they use the most, and which websites they visit for industry news or to learn about things related to your industry. Find out whether they read blogs or listen to podcasts, and if so, which ones. Then, use this data to build your own B2B social media strategy based on what your audience wants, and where they spend their time.

Once you’ve identified your audience in the B2B social media sphere, you can devote more energy into connecting and engaging with your future customers. Pretty soon, other businesses will be looking to yours for tips and tricks on how to influence their audiences via social media.
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