Top 10 B2B Social Media Trends of 2021

In this article, we shall go over some top b2b social media trends today that are going to continue to dominate the social networking space in 2021. But before that, let us take a quick look at what benefits a good social media strategy will reap for your B2B business.

Benefits of a Strategy That Follows The Top B2B Social Media Trends

A proper social media strategy can make a whole world of difference between a successful and a failed social media campaign.

How?

Let us take a quick look at what benefits a B2B company can expect when they implement a proper social media strategy in keeping with the latest b2b social media trends.

• It gives a specific direction to your social media campaigns to make them more tailored to your marketing and business goals.
• It provides a guideline for creating proper marketing content for your specific social media channels.
• It makes every social media campaign measurable, reportable, and improvable.
• It lets you connect with existing and new customers on different social media platforms.
• It utilizes the social channels that play a part in a customer’s buying cycle to influence their purchasing decisions.
• It helps you to stay prepared and consistent with all your social media campaigns.
• It creates a viable source of communication with customers and provides valuable customer insight.
• It allows you to stay ahead of your competitors.
• It can enhance brand reputation and credibility by humanizing your brand to your prospects.
• It creates realistic opportunities for leads to convert.

B2B Social Media Trends to Follow Today

The chief reasons for something becoming a trend are that it is engaging, easy to navigate, and offers some kind of value to everyone involved. The same is true for b2b social media trends of 2021. These are ways you can gain the attention of your prospects on social media and nudge them forward to become your customers.

Hence, without further ado let us dive into the best social media trends to follow in 2021, along with guidelines on how to implement them and why they matter.

1. Video Content Will Be Preferred

No matter which social media channels you choose for your marketing campaign, video content can engage more people because it is more efficient than reading a long blog post.

In fact, did you know that around 70% of B2B buyers and researchers watch over thirty minutes to one hour’s worth of video content during their buying process?

When a prospect consumes video content, they can easily gain insight into your brand. They will be able to know about what products and services you offer within a few minutes without having to go through long articles and blogs.

Moreover, videos don’t exhaust the viewer, all the while keeping them engaged and informed.

As a B2B business, you can use some of the following types of video content to boost your social media strategy.

• Demo videos
• Brand videos
• Expert videos
• Event videos
• Educational or how-to videos
• Explainer videos
• Case studies and customer testimonial videos
• Live videos
• Personalized message videos

Video marketing has been around for a long time, and it is not going away anytime soon. It is high time you get on board.

2. Influencer Partnerships Will Become More Popular

Social media and influencer marketing go hand in hand. Influencers are the reigning overlords of social media channels. They are authoritative figures who have developed their own brand and their voices matter in their community.

This is especially the case in the B2B industry, where business decision-makers are more likely to trust an individual they see as an expert in the field. For instance, businesses are more likely to trust a name like Ann Handley when she recommends a digital marketing agency than a random ad that pops up on their screen.

Influencer partnerships are a powerful strategy to leverage in 2021. Building on the right partnerships can bring your brand the right amount of exposure, leads, and revenue. Here are some reasons why influencer marketing is such a hot B2B marketing trend today and why it is strongly recommended.

• Influencer marketing is much cheaper in the long run as compared to running regular ad campaigns, seeing how the former brings in quick results while the latter doesn’t.
• Influencers usually help marketers achieve a variety of marketing goals instead of just generating leads.

The last word of advice to B2B marketers here is to work with a network of small, relevant, niche influencers instead of collaborating with just one or two big influencers with celebrity status. It not only costs less but also brings in higher engagement and better quality of customers.

3. Social Commerce Will Continue Rising

Social media platforms encourage social commerce as it enhances the user experience. New features and tools are added frequently to support quick and easy shopping. Good examples of social commerce initiatives are Instagram and Facebook shops which allow brands or business accounts to create shoppable posts and pages, thus enabling visitors to buy the products or services in real-time.

Social commerce shortens the buyer journey by making the purchasing process quick, easy, and simple. As users develop an interest to purchase through the product visuals, they see on shoppable posts and online shops and their interest can be capitalized by brands as a top-of-the-funnel B2B marketing strategy.

You might think that this trend is only suitable for B2C business, but for your B2B business, it can help to bring in sales-qualified leads that convert easily and quickly.

This social media trend is only going to get stronger since social commerce has become a new retail avenue for brands. If it continues growing at this pace, it might soon become a contender for mainstream retail channels such as websites and offline stores. Now is the time to leverage this tool and use it in your favor.

4. Facebook Ads Will Continue to Dominate

Facebook was and still is the undisputed king for ad marketing. Although it was considered to be an underrated paid advertising platform for B2B, that is fast changing in 2021. With 2.38 billion active users and business decision-makers spending 74% more time on Facebook as compared to other people, it naturally follows that Facebook ad marketing is rising as a stronger social media trend today than ever.

Let us take a brief look to figure out why Facebook ads are gaining so much ground and have come out on top as one of the hottest b2b social media trends of 2021.

• In recent years, Facebook has done a lot of research to gain the trust of business advertisers and offers a variety of interesting tools for B2B marketers.
• Facebook retargeting, which is a feature that allows brands to retarget the people that just visited their business website and promote more targeted content like webinars, case studies, and whitepapers, is a favorite of B2B marketers.
• Instagram advertising is handled through the Facebook ad platform and offers a wide range of tools and ad formats to promote or retarget business decision-makers on Instagram.
• Apart from connecting with prospective customers, Facebook is also an effective platform for recruiting and showcasing company culture content.
• Facebook is a great top-of-the-funnel B2B marketing tactic used to promote thought leadership and brand awareness among prospects.

With more and more B2B marketers using Facebook advertising, it has become a huge channel for B2B businesses and it will continue to expand. You might as well take full advantage of this social trend while it is here.

5. LinkedIn Marketing Will Grow in Importance

As the world’s largest professional networking site, LinkedIn is the number one target for account-based marketing. Among 740 million users in over 200 countries and territories, 46 million are B2B decision-makers. LinkedIn has always been the preferred and most reliable medium for B2B marketing and it will continue to be of paramount importance in 2021.

To better understand why LinkedIn is such a great place for account-based marketing, let us take a look at some of its key features. These are the features that let’s B2B marketers like you engage with and learn about their buyer personas and reach more qualified leads that easily convert:

• Despite the ever-changing algorithm, LinkedIn still has scope for organic reach through organic content like LinkedIn posts, SlideShare, LinkedIn articles, and external links.
• It offers engagement-focused paid social media options like LinkedIn’s Sponsored Content, Dynamic Ads, and InMail.
• During the pandemic, LinkedIn Groups have built value by building communities. And, these communities are great places to network, increase engagement, and create brand awareness for your B2B business.
• It offers Matched Audiences tools that enable website retargeting, account targeting, and contact targeting for teams focused on account-based marketing (ABM) efforts.
• LinkedIn has introduced conversational ads which engage with the prospects and allow B2B Marketers to nurture the potential customers before turning them into valuable and convertible leads.
• LinkedIn polls can be used to collect valuable insight from your network, whether it is for marketing research or feedback about your business.

You can implement any or all of these features to properly utilize this B2B marketing social media channel to keep up with the trend and up your LinkedIn marketing game.

6. Live Content Will Become More Popular

Live content has been gaining popularity ever since the pandemic hit. Webinars, live interviews, shows, and product presentations offer customers the opportunity to receive information about a product or service directly from a brand representative, all from the comfort of their couches.

Today, every major social networking platform like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are pushing live content because the exposure you get from live content is unparalleled. Part of the reason for its popularity is that it shows up at the very top on your network’s feeds and mobile notifications get sent out to every follower when a live video starts. But there are more in-depth reasons why live content is valuable for B2B businesses. Let us take a glance at what those are.

• It makes the research process easier for business decision-makers since they do not have to dig through articles and web pages for days.
• It humanizes the brand by adding a face to it. The person conducting the live content is more trustworthy and comforting than an unknown faceless website.
• An interactive space is created where the viewer has the option to ask questions and start discussions in real-time. The brand can communicate with the prospects directly.
• Content used in live sessions can be used afterward to make gated content, which adds to its functionality.
• All the people who sign-up for a webinar or a product/service presentation are good quality leads whom you can add to your mailing list.
• It costs next to nothing to start a live session and get in touch with your target audience or contacts in your network.

Producing live content is way easier and cheaper than hosting a business event and yet just as impactful, if not more. It is best to leverage the rising popularity of this social media trend to boost your B2B business reach and influence.

7. Twitter Will Rise to the Ranks

Among the major social media moguls, Twitter is certainly one, and yet most B2B marketers hesitate to extend their social media marketing strategies to this platform. However, that needs to change soon as Twitter rises to the ranks as one of the top b2b social media trends of 2021. Even if you are not utilizing it, your competitors might be taking full advantage of it because, among 330 million people using Twitter every month, 59 % are B2B accounts.

The B2B market on Twitter is thriving and, if used correctly, it can be an effective tool for connecting with similar accounts within your industry. All you need to do is type in a keyword in the search bar and you will have a list of all matching accounts (target audience) at your fingertips.

It is a great platform to create brand awareness, maximize social monitoring, study competitor analytics, and connect with customers globally. It is recommended to use the medium for amplifying executive insights and value statements, as opposed to product specifics or sales pitches. With a consistent brand voice and quirky tweets, you too can ace the Twitter trend and rise in fame in this very popular social media channel.

8. Episodic and Interactive Content Will Prosper

Two of the most relevant content trends that have been slowly gaining momentum over the past few years are episodic content like podcasts, interviews, and shows, and as interactive content like quizzes, surveys, and polls. And these types of content are going to prosper even more in 2021.

Episodic content marketing breaks content into bite-size pieces. This content usually has a storyline and continuity, which captivates the audience and keeps them hooked.

A great example of shows that package episodic B2B content into interesting video snippets is the Coffee with Closers series by OneIMS, which features interviews of some of the top B2B marketers in the world. Another superb example of such a groundbreaking show is Break Free B2B Marketing Interviews.

Creating such episodic content is a very creative marketing approach and does not resemble advertisements in any way. But they get the job done – they get people to care and be interested in your business.

Similarly, interactive content requires and encourages users to actively engage with it rather than passively consume it. Research shows that interactive content is 23% more effective at educating buyers than static content. A person can easily pass by a static image without much notice, but when they answer a questionnaire, they are likely to read and understand the information.

Interactive content will be used more often in 2021 as driving greater marketing performance through engaging content experiences becomes a priority.

9. User-Generated Content Will Soar

Any piece of content that someone outside the company creates on behalf of the company is called user-generated content (UGC). The company might promote that content but the story itself is coming from the user rather than the company.

To put it in short, it stands as a testament to good customer experience. While user-generated content is not a new thing by any stretch of the imagination, it is one of those evergreen strategies that is never going to go out of trend.

The reason is plain and simple – the user is not paid for creating this content. Although some incentives may be involved, no user is going to go out on a limb and promote a brand unless they are truly satisfied. And this authenticity is what makes user-generated content so reliable. People want proof before they buy something and user-generated content provides that social proof.

For your B2B business, promoting customer reviews, encouraging word of mouth, starting conversations through digital interactions, and case studies of satisfied customers can serve as great avenues of utilizing user-generated content.

As an effective way for brands to forge relationships with their customers, user-generated content is going to remain a common theme in 2021 as well.

10. People Will Favor Personalized Content 

B2B businesses may be selling a technical product or service to a company, but they are not selling to a robot. The business decision-maker on the other end is a human being who has preferences. When advertisements, offers, and communication efforts are tailored to the needs of each customer, it works a lot better than any generalized content ever would.

As a B2B marketer, you might not be able to personalize your social media content for different consumer segments since it is something posted for the entire audience base in general. However, you can still customize your social media ads for as many targeted audience segments as possible.

The way to achieve it is by leveraging the array of advanced targeting and customization options social media platforms provide for marketers nowadays. Using these features means the right ads get shown to the right people at the right times.

Producing personalized content will allow you to optimize your B2B marketing strategy by,

• High-intent customer targeting
• Using the most appropriate marketing channels
• Perfect message delivery
• Real-time communication

Personalization increases visitor engagement and improves customer experience, which are two things that are not going to go out of style anytime soon.

Are You Following The Latest B2B Social Media Trends?

Now that we have gone through all the current social media trends, the real question is – are you staying in trend, or has your brand become obscure and irrelevant? No matter what your answer is, knowing about the social media trends of 2021 is not going to hurt.

Social media is a competitive field and not following the trends only means that you are making it even more difficult for yourself by swimming against the flow.

If you are seeing your business struggle in terms of social media marketing, you should remember that this does not need to be a permanent curse. Now that you are armed with the knowledge of all the major B2B marketing trends that are going to dominate the social media scene in 2021 and onwards, it all comes down to how you implement this knowledge. If the trends discussed in this article are utilized correctly, you will see the results for yourself.

For any kind of assistance regarding social media strategizing for your B2B business, you can contact our team of expert social media marketing professionals at OneIMS.