Social media marketing is rapidly growing in popularity thanks to the 3.196 billion social media users online this year. That number is only expected to keep growing in the coming years, so it’s not surprising that many B2C (business to consumer) are relying on social media as a marketing tactic. Many marketers associate social media with B2C brands because it offers a level of personal marketing to consumers, but shouldn’t that apply to B2B (business to business) brands too?

The short answer is yes, of course, it should! A staggering 89% of B2B researchers rely on the internet during their research process. Why wouldn’t you want to turn social media into another online platform for them to research and connect with your brand? Major B2B tech companies, including Intel and Grasshopper, have begun launching social media marketing campaigns to reach an online audience, and your brand should be doing the same!

Use Social Media Marketing to Educate

To run a successful social media marketing campaign as a tech company you have to bring something to the platform that your audience finds useful. This means figuring out what niche your company should put a focus on in their social media presence. Use the platform you chose to connect with and educate your audience, rather than trying to sell to them. Creating that open line of communication with the businesses you’re marketing to will be much more effective than making cold calls or attending marketing events to network.

Give Your Audience a Reason to Follow You

There’s no shortage of brands on social media in today’s market so standing out can be a challenge. One great way to create a brand image that will make your audience want to follow and engage with you is to humanize your brand. As a tech company, it may sound strange to aim to humanize your brand, but it’s more effective than you’d think! Sharing behind the scenes pictures of staff members working on new projects and updating your audience on awards and recognition the company receives are just a couple of ways you can get your audience involved with the brand and the people behind the tech. Similar to offering education content to your audience, humanizing your brand will help leave a lasting mark in the minds of your audience.

Choose the Right Platform

With the vast number of social media platforms filled with a potential audience choosing the right network to utilize for your social media marketing is a challenge. Before you decide which platform is right for your company, try to determine where your target audience spends the most time. While B2C brands may have great success on Instagram or Facebook, B2B tech brands are searching for a different audience. If your main audience is made up of engineers and web developers, then you’ll likely see better results from marketing on Google+ or LinkedIn. Finding the best platform for your brand may take some trial and error, but after evaluating engagement and referral visit data you’ll be able to determine what platform offers you the best results.

Maintain Your Presence

Once you’ve established an online presence and relationship with your audience over social media, maintaining it is the bigger challenge. Your brand should aim to offer regular interaction with the audience and post frequently to keep the relationship you’ve built. Just as you would with any other marketing tactic, you should sit down with your marketing team and devise a long-term plan of what to post, when to post it, and how to interact with other users. The larger tech companies we mentioned above, along with many others, have seen great success from B2B social media marketing. It’s time that smaller tech companies begin utilizing B2B social media marketing in the same way to grow their audience and their brand!

If you’d like to schedule a meeting to create a strategic social media plan for your tech business, contact us.