9 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes Made By B2B Companies

With nearly three-quarters of the U.S. population using social media, B2B companies frequently overlook social media as part of their overall marketing strategy. According to Social Media Examiner, 96% of marketers use social media to reach new prospects, and 92% believe it's an important marketing tool. Furthermore, statistics show that 84% of CEOs and VPs use social media to help them make purchasing decisions.

If you're planning to (or do) use social media to attract leads and generate sales for your B2B company, try to avoid making the following mistakes.

#1) Overlooking the CTA

On Facebook, include a call-to-action (CTA) button on your company's page. Doing so will funnel users from your Facebook Page to your company's website, email newsletter or other web landing pages. To add a CTA, log in to your Facebook account, access your Page and click the "Add button" link under your cover photo. You can then choose from one of several options, including "Book with you," "Contact you," "Learn more about your business," "Shop with you," Download your app" or "Join your community." Feel free to experiment with different CTAs to see which one works best and delivers results.

#2) Too Many Promotional Posts

What's wrong with promoting your company's products or services on social media? Well, there's a right way and a wrong way to promote products and services on social media. If you only publish promotional posts, it may deter users from following your company. You have to remember that most social media users aren't interested in promotional advertisements. Therefore, companies that only publish promotional content experience a lower level of success than their counterparts that publish a combination of promotional and informational content.

#3) Only Posting Text Content

One of the most common developed posts are text based. However, be sure to mix things up a bit and include other types of content such as images, infographics and video. A study conducted by Social Bakers found that 93% of the most engaging Facebook posts were images. This means images receive more likes, comments and shares. And with a higher level of engagement, you'll achieve greater results with your company's social media marketing strategy.

#4) Not Following Prospects

B2B prospects may find your company on social media by searching for related content or otherwise stumbling upon your company's profiles or pages. Be sure to follow your company's prospects, even if they aren't following you. When you follow another organization on Facebook, for instance, the organization will see that you are following them, in which case they may check out your company's Facebook Page. Twitter also reveals the users who follow your account. So, after getting your company's social media profiles and pages up and running, search for prospects and follow their accounts.

#5) Manually Posting All Content

An effective social media marketing strategy requires publishing new content on a regular basis. You can log in to your company's social media account and publish the content manually, or you can use a social automation tool like Hootsuite. Using Hootsuite, you can create your company's social media content in advance and schedule it to publish at future dates.

#6) Assuming All Social Media Networks Are the Same

Many B2B companies assume that all social media networks have the same audience and features, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Twitter, for example, focuses on short posts consisting of 280 or fewer characters, while Instagram reaches a larger number of millennials. To reap the benefits of social media marketing, it’s good to understand the nuances between the different social media networks. Now you can better choose the best social platform that yields results for your B2B company.

#7) Not Measuring Metrics

Like most marketing channels, the success of your company's social media marketing strategy relies heavily on your ability to measure metrics. If you aren't tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like followers, engagement, likes, shares, leads and conversions, how will you know which social media networks are worth pursuing? Whether it's Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram, all of the leading social media networks have built-in analytics for this purpose.

#8) Expecting Results Overnight

You can't expect social media to generate leads or sales for your company overnight. It often takes months to develop a strong presence on social media, after which you'll begin to see results. Keep building and promoting your company's social media presence, and results will follow.

#9) One-Way Conversations

Social media marketing is most effective when it involves a two-way dialog between your company and its followers. When someone comments on a post, for instance,  respond to them! Or if someone sends you a direct message, take a minute to respond to their message. Two-way dialog such as this shows users that your company actively monitors and manages its social media account.

Most of all always look for project opportunities at Sales Leads. We are your resource for marketing professionals searching for quality B2B projects with key decision makers and their direct dials and emails. Take a look to evaluate it's effectiveness for your marketing department.