Which social media platform is best for attracting B2B clients?

September 15, 2022

Let’s help you find the best social media platform for business-to-business (B2B) by weighing the pros and cons of each social media network! In this post, we’ll look at popular B2B platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to keep in mind when planning your content marketing strategy! 

Why is having a social media presence crucial for B2B brands?

If you’re marketing for B2B, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What are the best ways for potential buyers to find your business?
  2. If my clients cannot find information and comments about my services online, would they have the confidence to make a purchase?
  3. How do I stop negative comments about my brand from spreading online?

There are many advantages of having a social media presence, including the following:

  • Building more brand awareness
  • Generating new leads 
  • Building a community
  • Remarketing to your existing customers

How to decide which social media platform to use?

Everyone has heard something like this before: “You need to be on TikTok because it’s trending”. But being on every social media platform takes a lot of time. So how do you decide which platform is best for your B2B business? 

Before you choose a social platform, you need to consider a few things:

  1. Goals: Are you looking to increase sales or engagement?
  2. Target Audience: What type of content would resonate best with your audience?
  3. Time: How much time do you have to spend on social media marketing?
  4. Budget: Will you hire a marketing team or outsource social media management? Do you have a budget for paid ad campaigns? Or you’ll focus on organic content?

Which social media platform is best for B2B marketers? 

Let’s look at the pros and cons of each social network.

#1: LinkedIn – Best platform for Professional and Large Company B2B leads

Want to attract larger B2B clients? Then LinkedIn has the target audience you’re looking for: professionals, corporate executives and decision-makers.

  • 51% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn
  • 71% of LinkedIn users have incomes of USD 50,000 or more
  • 80% of social media-related leads for B2B come from LinkedIn

Advantages of using LinkedIn:

  • Build brand awareness 
  • Network with senior professionals
  • Generate new leads and close sales
  • Move people down your marketing funnel
  • Advertising features available

However, even with all these benefits, making LinkedIn the central part of your marketing may not be effective. LinkedIn is best used as part of a larger, multi-channel content strategy.

Disadvantages of LinkedIn:

  • Smaller user base (compared to Facebook and Instagram)
  • It’s more difficult to grow a large audience for your brand
  • Requires a long-term commitment and resources
  • Lots of spam-like messages 

How to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing

Keep in mind that networking, lead generation and building brand awareness are the best ways you can use LinkedIn for B2B marketing. If these are your goals, then you’ll find LinkedIn is the best platform to help you reach them. Once you’ve built a network, start exploring LinkedIn message ads to reach more people and generate new leads.

What to post on LinkedIn?

“Images are the most popular post format on LinkedIn (50.96%), followed by links (30.94%).” – Social Insider

  • Native content: Post branded videos, infographics, statistics, quotes, polls and testimonials to grow brand awareness
  • External content: Share links from your blog posts to start conversations
  • LinkedIn events: Organize online events to connect with your audience
  • LinkedIn ads: Use Message ads and Lead generation forms to generate new leads

Publishing articles on LinkedIn vs your blog

Since LinkedIn-hosted content generally does not add much SEO value, you should keep your best articles on your website. Then share your links to LinkedIn to start discussions with your network. This will help you maximise your reach and direct more leads to your website, and drive them  down your marketing funnel. 

#2: Facebook – Best platform for B2B ads 

Users: 2.9 B people 

Best for: paid ads, lead generation, organic content

Facebook (owned by Meta) is the largest and most well-established marketing platform. Their Business Suite has a range of tools to help you reach your B2B marketing goals with paid ads. The main advantages of using Meta are its global audience, a large number of business accounts and advanced advertising tools. 

Advantages of Facebook:

  • Large, global user-base (including 200 M businesses)
  • Vast advertising and targeting capabilities  
  • New B2B audience segment to help you reach decision makers
  • Reach people who have interacted with your business 
  • Capture new leads with Lead generation ads 

Disadvantages of Facebook:

  • The Business Suite is complex for beginners
  • Facebook Ads management requires professional knowledge
  • Facebook has strict advertising policies, which means they can restrict/ suspend your ad account for non-compliance – resulting in loss of ad credit
  • Many younger people (Gen Z) are not on Facebook

How to use Facebook for B2B marketing?

Start with a goal: What would you like to achieve from marketing on Facebook? Then, find the best content to share for your goals:

  • Brand Awareness: Attract new people to your page with targeted ads and inspire them with educational video content, tips and tutorials.
  • Community Engagement: Start conversations with your existing audience by using storytelling, educational and entertaining posts. 
  • Lead Generation: Create classes, and workshops and host paid events to promote your business with lead generation ads.

#3: Twitter – Best Emerging Platform for B2B marketers in 2022

  • Users: 237 million users worldwide
  • Best for: Community building, Customer service, Live events
  • 70% of marketers plan to increase investment in Twitter 

Social media marketers are often looking for new platforms and features to invest in. In 2022, Twitter tops the list of platforms where B2B marketers are planning to increase their investment with 70% of marketers planning to increase their spending. Twitter has also added new content formats and features, including Twitter Notes, Twitter Spaces (audio tool) and Twitter Communities so you can find more ways to interact with your B2B audience.