4 Latest B2B Social Media Marketing Trends that will Shape 2020 - SEM Updates

• Updated on: 2019-11-29
• Read original article here

The ever-growing prominence of social media in our day-to-day lives is undeniable. In fact, 98% of all digital consumers around the globe are active on a social media platform each month.

If you want to promote business growth in 2020 and achieve brilliant results well into the future, Social Media is key. It’s important to truly understand not only how your audience uses social media, but also how you can improve their overall experience online and stay ahead of your competition.

Social media advancements in recent years have played a major role in defining the expectations of consumers in the modern market.

Your target audience now has access to an abundance of information at their convenience, meaning they can compare various offerings with minimum effort. Those who fail to clearly and convincingly convey their expertise and the value of their offering will struggle to make a lasting impact.

With an effective, systematic B2B social media marketing plan, you can attract, interest and delight your audience, helping you drive more valuable conversions.

96% of the world’s active Facebook accounts are accessed from a mobile device and, during 2018, mobile was found to be the primary social device.

Ephemeral content is ideal for mobile users, which has contributed strongly to its rapid growth in popularity since being introduced to platforms such as Instagram.

When scrolling through content on their smartphone, individuals have their device positioned upright 94% of the time. This is ideal for the consumption of short-lived content, which can be viewed promptly with minimum effort from the user.

Each year, your consumer’s attention span drops by a considerable 88%. Sharing short stories that offer immediate value to users in an exciting and engaging way that can help you overcome such hurdles and, in this way, can be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool.

Ephemeral content typically comes in the form of “stories” and, because it’s only temporarily available, brands are often less particular about what they post. Many businesses leverage this communication channel to share more personal insights with prospects, such as behind-the-scenes content. This can, in turn, assist them in developing authentic, meaningful and value-driven relationships with their target market on Social Media.

In addition to this, you can directly interact with users by sharing polls and the like to your story. This gives you the opportunity to gain greater insights into your target audience’s preferences and expectations, meaning you can better cater to their distinct needs and further improve your offering. This, in turn, reinforces that you value input from your customers and that you’re eager to take their opinions on board.

So, how does ephemeral content directly apply to your B2B business?

Your target audience comprises of companies, but it’s important to remember that the individuals making purchasing decisions are still consumers nonetheless. As a B2B business, informing prospects and clearly conveying your expertise is crucial, and with ephemeral content, you can do just that. With this approach, you can share product demonstrations, keep individuals updated on the latest brand news and provide exclusive sneak peeks.

Video is an incredibly engaging marketing medium and, in B2B marketing, it can assist your company in building a strong brand personality and demonstrating proficiency. With audiovisual content, your brand can tell valuable stories that inform and truly resonate with prospects.

By 2022, it’s expected that 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be driven by online videos. Thus, if you’re yet to integrate video content into your B2B social media marketing strategy, you may be failing to reach a significant portion of your audience in the near future.

Across just about every leading social platform, video content continues to achieve incredible results, helping companies improve their return-on-investment and leave a lasting impact.

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, are now making it easier than ever before for companies to create the content of this nature. If you’re new to the world of video content, but want to try it for yourself, Facebook has a slideshowfeature that allows users to effortlessly build simple videos. This can be a relatively straightforward way for your business to switch-up your Facebook posts, keeping your feed exciting and boosting user engagement.

Consumers want their inquiries to be heard, and moreover, they now expect a prompt response from the brand they’re contacting. In fact, a recent survey found that after messaging a company directly, 94% of customers expect to get a reply within 4 hours.

So, how can your business keep up with this growing demand and ensure you’re adequately fulfilling the needs of your audience?

Ultimately, you need to enhance your customer experience in a maintainable, practical way that isn’t going to hinder your ability to deliver an exceptional offering. For instance, if staff members have to spend more time managing customer queries, they may have fewer opportunities to focus on innovation and product or service development.

This is where automation and in this instance, chatbots, come into play.

 Messaging on social media platforms, such as Facebook Messenger, is projected to continue its growth in the years to come. People are becoming increasingly focused on connectivity and, of course, your business needs to take this on board.

By leveraging technology, such as chatbots, you can optimize your employee’s time, all the while continuing to meet the needs of your audience.

 According to 94% of B2B marketers, LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform when it comes to lead generation. In recent years, LinkedIn has seen an influx of business professionals flock to the platform. In fact, as of 2019, the network has 303 million active monthly users, 121 million of whom visit the site daily.

Users are on LinkedIn for business, and as such, they’re browsing through content with intentions to better their organization or career. This is ideal for B2B, as most of the time, those who view your collateral or advertisements on this platform have clear, relevant intent.

 By sharing insightful, value-driven content on LinkedIn, you can improve brand awareness and attract more relevant audiences to your website.

A core reason why LinkedIn performs so well is that it offers to target that’s incredibly relevant to the needs of B2B businesses. This is because the user’s accounts are, of course, centered on their profession. As such, organizations have the opportunity to directly reach those with certain job titles, members of different industries and the like, targeting them with personalized content. This can, ultimately, assist you in not only attracting prospect’s attention but also capturing it.

The B2B business environment is continually evolving; don’t let your organization get left behind in the rush. By becoming familiar with and embracing the social media marketing trends mentioned in this article, you can ensure your business is well equipped to take on a Social Media campaign in 2020 with confidence.