How to Increase Engagement on Social Media for B2B

Social media isn't just teenagers doing fun dances on TikTok, it's also a great tool for businesses to create a dedicated community and attract customers. 50% of the population uses social media, but just appearing on these channels isn't enough. You shouldn't post without a social media plan and simply wait for something to happen. As part of your Social Media Strategy, it's crucial to measure engagement, or the bond between your brand and its social community, and the potential reach and promotion of your business online.

To measure engagement, we use the Engagement Rate.

Depending on this value, we will obtain:

• Less than 1%: Low engagement
• Between 1% y 3.5%: Good engagement
• More than 3.5%: Excellent engagement

Remember that it's necessary to analyze where your audience is; it doesn't make sense to be present on all social networks if your audience isn't there. Below, discover how to increase engagement on social media for B2B.

How to improve engagement on social media

There are many ways to improve engagement. Below, we will tell you the most effective ones:

1. Build your B2B community

The first thing you should do to create a community is to define your audience, also known as Buyer Personas. It's a way to segment your audience and thus make targeting and messaging more personalized. 

Hashtags

A common practice when creating or expanding a B2B community is the use of hashtags:

• Community Hashtags: Use them to create brand recognition. Avoid using the most common or generic ones like #b2b or #ecommerce, as your content will get lost among the multitudes. Instead, use more specific hashtags with less competition but that still have a good sense of community, for example, #b2bcontentmarketing. They should always be industry-specific and target what your Buyer Personas are searching for. 
• Unique Brand Hashtags: These are branded hashtags that you make up for your business, and they will be much more specific than your community hashtags. For example, at mbudo, we use the hashtags #mbudo_you and #mbudoblog to target our followers. According to Sproutsocial, 70% of hashtags are brand content., and it's because they are extremely personalized, geared towards a specific campaign or content, and help build customer loyalty and community. 

Interactions

Another key element when trying to build your online B2B community is not to be afraid when interacting with other brands, companies, users, and followers. Interactions like comments and shares will help you improve the presence of your company within the industry and its members. If you're only publishing posts and nothing more, you're losing out on the "social" part of social networks. To get started, ask your followers for their opinion on certain topics, create surveys, leave comments on related content, respond to questions and comments, and... in other words, interact with your potential audience.

Furthermore, if you get a comment or question on one of your social media accounts, it is important that you respond within 48 hours, as this will convey timeliness and give the user more confidence in your brand.

Social Listening

Not only should you start conversations with your followers, but you should also keep track of everything that is said about your company, understand it, and actively participate in these conversations. This is called "social listening" and to do it right, we recommend the following tools:

• HubSpot: Publish and schedule posts for all your social networks, and seamlessly track and analyze all results. Monitor hashtags and easily respond to any threads or comments. 
• Hootsuite: With your keyword research, you can monitor all the search terms you want.
• Commun.it: Monitor websites and keywords.
• Twazzaup: Free keyword and hashtag monitoring.

2. Post consistently on social networks

It is necessary to consistently publish content to improve engagement on social media. The ideal number of publications regarding social networks are as follows (though you should study your audience and see what works best for your business):

• Facebook: 1-2 times per day.
• Twitter: 3-5 tweets per day. Remember that for this social network is very important that you are aware of live events and updates. That way, if something relevant happens, you'll be able to join the conversation.
• LinkedIn: 1 post per weekday (most LinkedIn users are not active on weekends). Keep in mind that this is the best social network for B2B. 
• Instagram: 1 feed post per day. For Instagram Stories, the ideal would be to publish at least 2 times a day.
• YouTube: At least 1 video per week. The ideal would be 2-3 videos per week.

Content Calendar

A useful tool for creating quality and consistent content is a content calendar. At first, it may seem a bit tedious to plan content for the entire month, but once prepared you'll solely focus on optimizing your strategy and profiles. In addition, a content calendar will help you plan social media campaigns, distribute content across formats and networks, detect and anticipate problems, research trends, and maintain an ongoing relationship with your followers. Make sure to align your social media calendar with other Marketing initiatives, such as blog content, corporate events, product launches, etc. 

3. Find new ways for your business to stand out

Sometimes it can be difficult for businesses to stand out on social networks, but all you need is a little imagination, hard work, and some time to find new ways to create and communicate your content. Take into account the latest trends:

First of all, it's better to tell the user what you want them to do than to wait for them to do it, so don't be afraid to ask your community. Think of it like a social call to action. For example, ask followers what they think of your new product by taking a short survey. 

Nowadays, it's essential to include Video Marketing in your social media strategy, as it allows you to communicate messages in a visual and creative way. Videos, especially short-form videos, are becoming more popular with the rise of platforms like TikTok and Instagram (characterized by viral video clips or cut-together photo reels), and Twitch (live-streaming long-form video feeds). Despite what you may think, B2B content can find its place on these networks. 

Finally, more companies are joining in on fast content and real-time marketing. Fast content is meant to be quickly and easily consumed (think Snapchat), and real-time marketing consists of doing things live or at a specific point in time to gain awareness (an event or product launch). 

4. Partner with industry influencers

Marketing influencers in your industry offer a lot of potential for increasing engagement with your business online. According to a report by Influencer Marketing Hub “67% of communication and marketing professionals work with influencers to promote content" and "companies earn $5.20 for every $1 spent on Marketing influencers”.

The key is to choose an influencer whose values are totally aligned with your company or brand, who has visibility in the industry, and who is committed to their community. A B2B industry influence could help you increase your brand reputation or brand messaging, deliver traffic to your website or landing pages, stimulate conversations about your products/services, and extend the reach of your social media campaigns. 

As a final tip, we advise you not to impose a “speech” on your influencers; they know their audience best and they know how address to them. You should give them guidelines for communication, but let them use their personal tone as it will seem less commercial and achieve better results.

5. Choose the right time and day to post

The best time to post on social media depends on three factors:

• The social network: Each channel has different characteristics and ideal publication frequency (see above). What works for LinkedIn won't necessarily work for Instagram. 
• The industry: Even if your followers are connected at a specific time, your sector is highly relevant. For example, a restaurant wouldn't publish a new menu item at 4 pm after the lunch rush is over. Always think about your audience's motivations and their stage in the Buyer's Journey.
• Your target audience: As previously mentioned, it is essential to define your Buyer persona in order to know their age, location, interests, habits, the channels they're on, and more. 

As for the moments with the highest audience for each network:

• Twitter: Monday to Friday from 3-4 pm and 9-10 pm.
• Instagram: Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday from 3-4 p.m. and 9-10 p.m.
• Facebook: Wednesday through Saturday from 3-4 pm, 6:30-7 pm and 8:30-9:30 pm.
• LinkedIn: Tuesday through Thursday from 10-11 a.m.

Remember that this data can be used as a reference to begin with, but you should analyze your audience, traffic, and results to optimize further. Some networks like Instagram have built-in metrics for analyzing this data, or you can use tools like Semrush or HubSpot to schedule the posts and track metrics. 

How to improve engagement on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the top network for B2B and Account Based Marketing. Although users spend less time on LinkedIn than on other social networks, the truth is that it is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook or Twitter. Use these tips to increase your engagement on LinkedIn:

• Showcase company content: Don't just copy and paste links to your posts. Just like on other social networks, you need to include attractive descriptions/images and relevant hashtags.
• Use SEO keywords in your profile: Using SEO-optimized keywords will increase the chance that potential customers end up on your profile, which will increase your engagement considerably. Use keywords related to your work, products, clients, and industry. 
• Acknowledge the work of others: Show your contacts that you care about your industry and community by sharing quality information with them, even if it's not yours. However, try to avoid sharing content of competitors. 
• End your posts with CTAs: Tell your audience the next steps after viewing a publication or reading a post. Ask them to write a comment, click a link, sign up for an event, take a survey, etc. 
• Stay active in LinkedIn groups: Join LinkedIn groups where you can interact with other companies in your sector. This will help show off your expertise and increase your visibility.

How to improve engagement on Facebook

Facebook is the third most visited website in the world (it is only surpassed by Google and YouTube). So when your Buyer Personas are spending time online, there's a huge possibility that they're browsing Facebook. Here are some tricks to increase B2B engagement on Facebook:

• Optimize your content for SEO: Like Google and YouTube, Facebook is fast becoming another place where we search for information. Thus, optimizing your profile and posts with SEO keywords will help customers find your business. 
• Consider using Facebook Ads: It's a tool that requires little investment yet produces good results. Advertise simple posts that are very visual, contain a CTA, and little text.
• Upload videos: Like other social networks, video is becoming more prominent on Facebook. Facebook videos should be under 1.5 minutes, avoid technical jargon, be enjoyable and fun. 
• Don't create posts that are too long: People get bored with posts that are too long, so a post of less than 80 characters is the ideal length to increase your engagement. Offer them more details via a CTA click.