b2b-organic-social-532x266-1 Is B2B Organic Social Media Dead?

Is B2B Organic Social Media Dead?

Depending on who you ask, B2B social media could be dead. Or, you could take steps to increase your organic social media reach by switching things up a bit.

The Facts

According to Forbes, on Facebook, organic social reach has been declining for years, with research showing that just 0.07% of a page’s fans engage with the average organic post. Instagram and Twitter are also experiencing the same issue.

In addition, the average organic reach (the amount of people that will see your post without paying for it) on Facebook and Instagram is less than 5% and 9%, respectively. That holds true for large and small brands alike.

That means if your firm’s Facebook page has 200 followers, on any given day less than 2 of those fans could see your posts organically. Yikes!

What can you do?

It’s not all doom and gloom for B2B brands. There are several steps you can take to increase engagement, expand post reach, and impress followers, including:

  1. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s Creator Mode for staff. This profile change allows others to follow them and not just connect. Then create content staff can post on their LinkedIn profile that others might want to consume. For example, if you have a financial planner on staff, they could create a weekly or monthly tip. Then share the tip on their profile. If staff doesn’t want to change their personal profile to creator mode, authoring articles on the firm’s page is also a helpful way to expand the firm’s thought leadership status.
  2. Mix things up. Incorporating various media types in your social media posts on any platform is helpful. For example, on Monday you post open-ended questions; Tuesday features tips; Thursdays are for testimonials, and; Friday is for strange facts. Incorporate video, images, carousels of images, and questions to help increase engagement.
  3. Employee advocacy is one of the most effective ways to amplify your content, humanize your brand, and engage your audience. Asking employees to share the firm’s social media content if the first step. Second, remember to highlight employees from across the firm, including volunteer efforts, behind-the-scenes moments, interesting tidbits, and more.
  4. Sharing downloadable content your target audience can benefit from is a great way to keep your followers coming back for more. This includes eBooks, checklists, instructional videos, podcast tips, and more.
  5. Combining organic and paid social media will also produce better results than doing one or the other because they work together toward the same goal to get more followers. This exposure, of course, is simply a means to the primary objective of all your marketing — more sales.

Start with a Content Strategy

In order to reach a goal, it must first be identified. That’s where the content strategy comes into play. Without it, you are simply posting content to take up space that no-one is interested in.

Search Engine Journal crafted a nine-step social media strategy that is relevant in today’s challenging social media environment, including:

  1. Identify your target audience, including demographics, interests, their goals in relation to your content, and media format.
  2. Set measurable goals for your social media efforts. They must be achievable, measurable, and relevant for your brand. For example, a goal might be generating 15 new leads for the brand each quarter over the next three quarters.
  3. Spy on the competition to see what they are doing and noticing how successful, or unsuccessful, their efforts are.
  4. Determine the best social media platforms based on where your target market hangs out; not based on your preference.
  5. Maximize your social media profile with contact details, relevant keywords, photos, links, and more.
  6. Plan your content strategy, including your promotions, paid efforts, and informative and entertaining content.
  7. Develop a social media content calendar. The schedule clearly outlines when to post, what to post, and where to post your content.
  8. Measure performance about what’s working and identify trends. Most social media platforms offer metrics, such as views, reach, likes, impressions, etc.
  9. Tweak the strategy based on trends, what’s working, and your target market changes.

Content Calendar Cheat Sheet

Download my 30 Days of Social Media Content template to invigorate your social media posts and generate ideas.

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