Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Salesforce: Businessman using a digital Tablet
B2B marketers are learning a whole new language as they turn to social media. Photograph: Mauro Grigollo/Getty Images
B2B marketers are learning a whole new language as they turn to social media. Photograph: Mauro Grigollo/Getty Images

How do the best B2B marketers generate sales through social media?

This article is more than 10 years old
Social media marketing is not just for targeting consumers. B2B marketers are discovering they can engage with huge numbers of prospects by 'humanising' their brand through Facebook, Twitter and Google+

Logistics and delivery service UPS uses LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and its UPSide blog to establish its leadership in logistics. "We use social media to share the brand stories, customer voices and our subject-matter experts to illustrate how we unlock value in the supply chain. The goal is to make logistics fascinating and relevant to segments that buy from us," says Brian Pember, senior manager of customer communications.

A long-held axiom of B2B marketing is that the best contacts are face-to-face meetings between a salesperson and a client. Pember agrees, but says: "People buy from people and nothing ever replaces a face-to-face conversation. But the business landscape simply doesn't allow that conversation to happen on a global scale. Social media does."

He adds that social media are a great way to "humanise" your brand. The UPS Facebook page has regular posts about drivers going to exceptional lengths to deliver parcels. "Stories that resonate on an emotional level, that put a human face on a global business, drive engagement and amplification," Pember says.

Office services company Ricoh markets printers, managed document services and other automated systems for businesses. Ricoh UK launched a social media strategy 10 months ago, promoting its company blog through Twitter and LinkedIn, and positioning itself as an expert in outsourcing office tasks.

Ricoh UK marketing director Chas Moloney says: "We have a complicated story to tell, working in multiple markets and sectors. Social media has allowed us to tell that story. We have doubled visitors to our blog and corporate website. Social media channels such as LinkedIn have enabled us to engage with existing customers."

However, Peter Jacob, a director at B2B PR specialist Weber Shandwick Enterprise, warns that companies must make sure they get the basics of online marketing right before diving into social media. They need to ensure they have optimised their service on Google and perfected their website by, for instance, offering rich video.

Making sure the website can be used easily on mobile is increasingly important, otherwise companies risk directing their social media followers to a poor advertisement for themselves.

"A lot of companies get blinkered, saying 'let's do social media', but forget the basics," Jacob says.

While some B2B companies are feeling their way in social media, often getting existing staff to learn the ropes as they go along, others are jumping in headfirst and hiring social media experts to spearhead their strategies.

Regus, which provides office space for businesses, has hired former ActionAid website editor Sam Bueno de Mesquita as group head of social media. Bueno says it is tougher for B2B companies to engage on social media than a campaigning organisation such as Action Aid, with which people want to be seen to be associated. "People don't think of themselves as a 'Regus' person in the same way as they might think of themselves as an 'Oxfam' person," he says.

Bueno's role is to encourage Regus staff in hundreds of cities around the world to build up their LinkedIn networks and tell the company story through updates. "Not all of them are brilliant at it – some just don't get it. But the real value is that we have thousands of employees who are closely connected with people in their local areas. We teach them how to identify LinkedIn groups that are relevant to Regus and how to join them and be useful to those groups. When we have a message we want them to share, we send it to them and they can use it if they think their audience will be interested," he says.

One of the most effective uses of LinkedIn for B2B marketing is offering relevant and interesting content that will help prospects and clients in their professional lives, says Fredrik Bernsel, a sales director for Europe at LinkedIn. "Produce valuable insights for members that raise interest in your brand. If you have research or white papers and can talk about, say, 10 ways to save energy, this is better than saying 'we have launched a new service'. We also recommend you make sure you have great headlines."

LinkedIn is testing out "sponsored updates", whereby companies can sponsor stories in people's news feeds, demonstrating their ability to produce strong content.

B2B marketers are learning a whole new language as they turn to social media. Customer engagement is replacing the hard sell as the key to successful B2B marketing.

From the Salesforce partner zone: How to generate sales leads with social media

Most viewed

Most viewed