B2B Social Media Case Studies

B2B marketing is very tricky but it does overpower traditional marketing strategies when dealing with people with technical knowledge. B2B governs another factor that a purchase is not a decision of one person alone but by a team to assess features. B2B marketing has a different goal. It reaches the target audience and drives demands, leads, sales.

Social media is a mandatory thing for every B2B marketers out there in the industry because it can help increase brand awareness, establish the company, helps you connect with prospects, companies, clients and industry influencers. It is heard everywhere that every successful business needs a robust social media awareness and presence. It has to be engaging and create an impact on social media platforms.

B2B is making a presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc, and people are starting to realize its presence and importance. Here are some of the stories of social media B2B marketing which has been a great success for the companies.

1. Maersk Line

Maersk has embraced every social media tool and has a significant presence. It has taken up catchy photos on Instagram and intriguing videos on Vimeo and has truly taken up all B2B platforms. The ultimate goal of Maersk was to know their market and get closer to customers. It also gives full satisfaction to the consumer.

To achieve these goals they shifted their focus to deliver stories on how it works on a daily basis. They included knowledge about their workers and staff members are from. The strategy was to know what their audience wanted and they delivered that. They posted it and delivered it in the form of blogs and initiated a photo contest that increased customer engagement.

The social media manager had made it clear that the page was not generating sales but for increasing engagement with customers. It was to connect with the customers and cater to their needs and not increase sales. This step has helped revolutionize the use of social media.

Social media is a way of knowing and communicating with customers about their needs rather than marketing. Social media is a mindset and a way of working together. This was Maersk’s motto and belief and they kept this in mind and used this as their marketing plan.

2. Drift

This one is unique because it has conversational marketing. They have been vocal about their care and effort they have put for their customers. They show the care through their continuous use of social media and being in touch with their customers.

Drift creates posts that are relatable and easy to digest by the audience. It has a mix of questions, quotes, and videos. They show-cast their customers in their posts and shares and also retweet their tweets. They take time and give a personalized experience and also answers your queries and gives replies to your comments.

Their social media is customer-driven and not company driven. They have put in their entire company’s efforts into their social engagements. Drift’s social strategy works because it is interactive, engaging, and customer-driven and brand consistent. It keeps customers engaged and they feel they are the priority for the company which serves as a great advantage for the company’s social network. This kind of social media service is another successful case story.

3. American Express Open

American Express has been using the power of social media for a long time. The push in the initial stage was given by the Open Forum where it provided advice to small businesses. It was their latest and greatest example of loyalty and also help small businesses expand into big ones. They give insights and advice online.

Why did their strategy work?

The continuous uploading of updates, blog posts, videos helped a lot to increase its fan base. The open forum not only helped small businesses but also help them connect with other people and other businesses.

The increase in conversation on their page brought a flood of people and increased its number of followers. AmEx managed to enhance connectivity through other platforms like Facebook. The launch of Big Break for Small Businesses was a great breakthrough for them. They could engage with their audience better and actively chat with them. AmEx social media strategy brings in leads and also managed to get a 30% boost in sales.

4. WeWork

This is a creative company that provides workspaces and business services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, start-ups, small businesses. They have a motto that says Community is the catalyst. They have created social channels to build a community of like-minded people. Their tagline is a good catch as it says it provides a beautiful workspace, an inspiring community.

They provide 30-second videos dealing with how to maximize office spaces, beautiful pictures of people’s workspaces. It works because their motto is not pushing the product but spreading their mission and helping customers grow. They help their customers share their stories using hashtags. WeWork’s social strategy works because it is visual, educative, focused on the community building and brand consistent.

5. IBM

IBM has a very powerful social presence. It is the company that provides software, hardware, cloud-based services to businesses. Their brand strategy is great. They use a mix of high-quality photographs, videos, trending hashtags, their employee profiles and showcases their brand value in every social media campaign. They build their community by emphasizing their shared values and togetherness. Their campaign is unique and reflective.

Their strategy works because:

• It tailors the content around current topics and events.
• It showcases the people, progresses, and processes that make up the company.
• They believe that science, reason can improve the human condition, society and their social media posts also show that.
• Their social strategy is timely, value-based and brand consistent.

6. AGCO

This is a global agricultural firm that owns many brands that deliver and manufacture farm machinery around the world. They had effective planning before they jumped into the social pool. They analyzed their audience and put up videos on social media and YouTube. The videos on YouTube showed them how to use the machinery.

It provides these clips to the people and now has gained many fans on various social media platforms. They also partner up with dealers and offer them marketing tools and training to farmers. This kind of engagement increases promotion and also gives a personal touch with its audience.

7. Marketo

Create an image with a thought-provoking quote is one great way for B2B marketing. This when made by a customer, influencers or a speaker can drive more traffic to your page. They even use the hashtag and make it a weekly campaign. They provide marketing automation, sales software for small, medium and even big businesses.

They provide helpful and informative material to their audience. They allow readers to click on their blogs and read about them. They mix in humor, inspiring quotes, and videos and they have a solid fan base. Many hyperlocal business models like Swiggy, Ola started using Marketo for their social media automation marketing.

Final Words

These are some of the success stories for B2B marketing and their social strategies. These strategies help create a good customer base and get you the targeted audience. They mainly aim to get in small businesses and help them widen their businesses and help them grow.

These different B2B strategies and conventional ideas help them create a good social media base and its aim should be not to increase sales but to cater to the needs of the consumers. They help in creating human to human interaction and whether you are selling to individuals or businesses it is humans who are involved and that makes a great social impact.

The use of images and videos is healthy and important and is required in social media campaigns. Taking time to engage with your audience and treating them as humans rather than businesses is very important and help in one to one conversation. These brands did a copious amount of research before starting their campaign and also got an insight into their target market and they delivered what they demanded.

Another thing that was common in these success stories was with having their research in mind they also had a plan in mind and their objectives of marketing were very clear. They identified these objectives that helped them to stand out and achieve success. The efforts and their one to one interaction have increased their sales and made them progress further and they helped their businesses grow.