A few years ago, most marketers working in B2B would have laughed if you mentioned the importance of building a B2B social media strategy.
Marketers always seemed to think of social media as the B2C domain. Why bother with B2B social media marketing?
For one thing, your buyers are consumers when they leave their office. Their habits, values, and interests don’t completely change once they get to work.
For another, top businesses, your buyers, and B2B influencers hang out on social media – especially LinkedIn – which means you have to hang out there, too.
Check out these top B2B social media statistics for 2019 for a little insight as you build your 2020 strategy.
B2B Social Media Statistics for 2019
These B2B social media stats come from a broad range of sources like LinkedIn, Sprout Social, and Social Media Examiner.
In general, it seems like most B2B marketers want to learn more about video and advertising on some of the world’s most-trafficked websites.
- LinkedIn has 645 million users in 200 countries.
- 2 new members join LinkedIn every second.
- 70% of LinkedIn users live outside the United States.
- LinkedIn performs 277% better for generating lead conversions than Facebook and Twitter.
- The number one challenge for 47% of social media marketers is developing strategies to support general business goals.
- 70% of B2B marketers plan to boost their organic LinkedIn marketing efforts.
- 62% of LinkedIn members engage with content on the platform because they say it’s educational or informative.
- 91% of executives say LinkedIn is the leading social network for professionally relevant content.
- 39% of marketers struggle to prove the value of social media in their companies.
- 40% of marketers say private community groups on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook will increase in value.
- 21% of B2B marketers use video on LinkedIn and 45% plan to boost their LinkedIn video marketing.
- 24% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn advertising on a regular basis and 35% plan to increase their LinkedIn advertising.
- 63% of social marketers say listening to audiences through social media to gain insight will increase in importance.
- 56% of professionals access the platform using multiple devices.
- 80% of marketers say increasing engagement across multiple social media channels is their top goal.
- 70% of social media marketers say increasing brand awareness is goal #1.
- 72% of marketers gauge social media success through likes and comments – but not shares.
- 53% of corporate-level marketers say proving the value of social media marketing to people outside their department is difficult.
- 45% of B2B marketers use Facebook video.
- 65% of B2B marketers regularly advertise on Facebook and 68% want to learn more about advertising through the platform.
- Facebook is the world’s third most popular website (Google and YouTube come in first and second).
- Facebook’s potential social media advertising audience could include 1.88 billion people.
- 26.3% of Facebook Pages pay for advertising or sponsored posts, up 1.2% from the end of 2018.
Building Your B2B Social Media Strategy to Generate Leads
B2B social media statistics for 2019 are important – but how will you put them into practice?
First, you need to grab attention. Then you need to keep visitors engaged long enough to convert into leads.
Keep these practices in mind as you build your B2B social media strategy.
Write Content for Every Stage of the Funnel
63% of senior-level execs say that most content they consume is too generic. Remember, however, that six or seven team members are involved in the average B2B sales process.
Your website is your best asset for nurturing leads. Leads tend to complete between 57% and 90% of the sales process before they ever reach out to one of your team members. That’s why your content is vital – you need it to nurture leads where you physically can’t.
It’s important to create content for each team member at every stage of the sales funnel.
Keep Their Attention
Once a visitor arrives at your website, you need to grab their attention before they hit the back button to keep scrolling the newsfeed.
Social media delivers some pretty dreary bounce rates. Don’t end your blogs or landing pages with a single CTA and call it a day. Give your readers plenty of content to consume.
With an adaptive content hub, an algorithm studies every visitor’s behavior. When they finish reading an article, the algorithm will offer them other pieces of related content.
This strategy meets your buyers’ expectations for personalized content, keeps them on your website longer, and allows you to collect data on their behavior before they even give you their contact details.
Create an Effective Abandonment Strategy
People are reading your content but they’re not converting into leads – how can you keep them on your site and buy yourself a little time?
Most B2Bs use exit-intent popups. However, they get one big part wrong: they confront people with lead forms to collect personal information.
When someone is trying to leave your website, the last thing they want to do is fill out a form.
Instead, use an exit-intent popup to give your visitors more valuable content. Based on the information you collected while they browsed your website, offer them related pieces of content.
That exit-intent popup gives you one last chance to woo leads instead of leaving a bad taste in their mouth with a form.
Complement Your B2B Social Media Marketing with User-Centric Landing Pages
A comprehensive B2B social media strategy isn’t worth anything if your landing pages aren’t designed to nurture leads.
Since 96% of visitors that arrive on your website aren’t ready to buy, it’s important to remove anything that interferes with the nurturing process. First things first: forms need to go. Forms aren’t mobile-friendly and no one likes filling them out.
Instead, give your leads the Netflix-style personalized content experience they’ve come to expect with self-nurturing landing pages and content bingeing features.
Hushly’s plug-and-play software can help you skyrocket leads by 51%. See how it works now!
