Before the first post lands on social media, it is important to define the company's objectives and target audience. Subsequently, the appropriate network should be chosen. The platforms that companies should be on include primarily Xing, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These networks have the greatest reach and have accordingly become professionalised.
„Content is King“ applies here too. Before a company positions itself as an expert and builds contacts, a content strategy should always be created to address target groups with adequate content.
To create relevant content, social listening is ideal – it helps identify the right topics and is essential for building long-term relationships.
TIP: Creating a social media editorial calendar!
Every company needs to find its optimal posting frequency and pursue it with continuity. Furthermore, one must be available for their target audience – community management is paramount in social media communication. Influencer marketing also works in B2B communication. Suitable experts and multipliers can be found on LinkedIn, Xing, or Twitter; here too, as in B2C, it is important through branding and Personal Branding Authenticity wins.
Social Media for B2B Lead Generation
We have repeatedly had good experiences with actively engaging in Xing and LinkedIn groups for our B2B customers, where high-quality content is disseminated. This includes not only company information or product news, but also curated content such as current studies or trend analyses (with source citations). With Xing and LinkedIn Ads, we achieve additional reach. When the target audience is precisely targeted, social media campaigns do an excellent job of groundwork for further sales activities.
Social selling is not rocket science, the measures in the social networks must be well planned and delivered cross-media, then lead generation via social media can be more successful than cold calls. Social selling automation completely replaces the unloved B2B cold call. With this form of contact, marketing can hand over B2B leads to sales, which only need to be converted into customers. B2B cold calling has a niche existence in most sales departments and is neglected. This task can therefore be completely replaced by a social selling campaign. Here too, if the target group is precisely targeted and the approach is excellently written without classic marketing platitudes, a conversion rate of between 15 and 30 per cent can be achieved. For a campaign with 1,000 contacts, this means 150 to 300 converted leads. Hardly any telemarketing campaign can achieve this today - the GDPR is making this type of lead generation in B2B increasingly difficult or impossible.
