Social media success is not just for B2C companies.
With over 3.5 billion social media users, it’s no wonder 83% of B2B marketers use social media for business promotion, 80% have a specific social media strategy, and 54% of them claim that they generate leads on platforms, as specified in one report.
Although it can be difficult for B2B companies to create and distribute social media content, brands should keep up to date with the current trends to hook the attention of its B2B buyers.
One solution… Create social media video posts!
In the last few years, video content has gained popularity: 95% of video marketers say video helps customers understand their product or service and 66% of people claim videos to be the way to learn about a product or service.
The numbers speak for themselves, but it’s better to see real-life examples that illustrate business growth.
Now let’s see how B2B companies achieve various business goals with social media video posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Build brand awareness
The more B2B buyers know about your company, the more potential clients you can acquire. According to the Sprout Social Index report, 69% of marketers say that increasing brand awareness is their number one goal for social media.
To grab the attention of your customers, consider using social media videos. Posting video content helps to tell more about your company. This means you can spark interest in your company.
Let’s take a look at three video post ideas that help to raise awareness.
1. Share industry trends
One of the best ways to tell the world about your company is to be a niche leader with a good reputation.
When you share industry news and trends, you show your expertise and therefore increase brand loyalty and trust. As a result, B2B buyers are more likely to tell other potential customers about your product or service – and this can help you to build brand awareness.
For example, SEMrush has SEMrush Academy that allows people to learn digital marketing with top-notch field experts. To attract new B2B buyers, SEMrush creates and publishes short social media videos that inform their followers about the latest industry trends, tips, or tricks.
What makes this example good? Not only does SEMRush educate its followers, but it also makes sure viewers get the main message. The company puts text on the video and highlights key points. Perfect for the majority of Facebook users (85%) who watch video without sound.
2. Create eye-catching brand videos
No matter what social media platform you use for B2B promotion, social media algorithms prioritise content from friends and family.
This can make it difficult for you to cut through the noise and reach targeted audiences.
Since 93% of communication is non-verbal, people pay close attention to visual content as it processed 60,000x faster than text. When you share eye-catching videos, it’s easier for social media users to remember your brand.
When people see an eye-catching video, they are twice as likely to share it with their family, friends, and colleagues – helping you reach even more people and therefore boost brand awareness!
Example? Check out this one from MailChimp:
This stop motion video by MailChimp is aimed at young B2B buyers who use Instagram for product and service discovery. It doesn’t talk about MailChimp’s services, but it grabs the attention and looks appealing. As a result, the company can achieve higher ROI. Why? When people are engaged, they are more likely to interact with your company after watching the video which means higher chance of positive outcomes.
This example is great because it shows how the company’s behavioral targeting feature works without using real examples.
3. Go live during the conference
With the rise of eLearning, more and more people sign up for online courses, video conferences, and master classes to acquire knowledge and improve hard skills.
The outbreak of COVID-19 moved even more people to online education which means B2B buyers seek out informative conferences, too. In a nutshell, hosting a virtual conference is great.
And if you go live during the conference, you can reach even more people who are interested in your tips and tricks. Moreover, it’s an easy social media video post idea that doesn’t require much time, skills, or efforts.
Here’s how Shopify uses social media to tell its audience about the virtual event and attract more attendees:
We’re pumped to announce our first-ever virtual event, 🚀 #ShopifyReunite🚀 happening on May 20th for Shopify merchants everywhere. https://t.co/9ULY5y15Mk
— Shopify (@Shopify) May 7, 2020
To kick things off: a word from our host, and Director of Product, Vanessa Lee 👇 pic.twitter.com/W8BSO2tDmS
In the example above, Shopify features its director of product which makes the video look more authentic. For B2B companies, this gives an opportunity to put a human face on the brand which makes it more appealing for buyers.
Not only can you go live during the conference, but you can also repurpose materials into social media video posts or a series of posts. For example, you can learn from the Gary Vee content pyramid model and turn your recorded conference (long-form piece of content) into short social-friendly posts that can fill your social posting calendar with useful content for months at a time. Win-win for both B2B buyers and companies.
Increase brand loyalty and trust
It’s no secret that corporate buyers differ from common customers in many ways. Not only do they experience a longer buyer journey, but they also make the purchase decision together with other colleagues.
However, B2B buyers are also humans who crave authentic relationships with brands. Thus, B2B brand loyalty and trust still matter. Luckily, there are several social media video post ideas to foster closer relationships with B2B customers and win over their loyalty.
4. Showcase your team
Although your B2B company sells products or services to other businesses, you still have a team of workers who help your business grow.
Believe it or not, B2B buyers want to take a look behind the scenes and see your team. Not only does it help to put a human face on your business, but it also increases brand loyalty and trust as people want to buy from real humans, not brands.
One of the best ideas to showcase your team is to create short social media videos that show your colleagues and their daily duties, just like in the example below from SPDLoad:
This video is dynamic and shows real people behind the company and their workplace.
5. Share your CEO’s tips
More often than not, B2B companies develop values, views, and mission based on the vision of CEOs. Thus, most B2B buyers are interested in learning more about CEOs, so they want to see content that helps to know the company’s CEO, his/her views and beliefs.
When it comes to creating social media video posts, sharing your CEO’s tips is another great idea that builds brand loyalty and trust. Many B2B companies have introduced their CEOs by featuring them in video content.
Any example needed? Hubspot’s CEO, Brian Halligan, shares his tips and tricks from time to time and followers are happy to view these videos:
As our CEO @bhalligan says, ”Thank goodness for @Zoom_us.” Zoom continues to keep our customers and employees connected as we work remotely. Thank you @ericsyuan and team. #ZoomOn pic.twitter.com/97mhbBpHCh
— HubSpot (@HubSpot) April 17, 2020
This simple video by Hubspot grabs the attention right away–not all world-known companies can convince their CEOs to take a phone and make a short video. When a CEO has time (and desire) to say a few words to his audience, it strengthens the bond with customers. After watching this type of video, it would be difficult for any B2B buyer to think “this company doesn’t care about their client”.
However, you should be ready to handle negative social media reviews as customers are more likely to express their negative opinions when they see posts that feature CEOs.
Why? Most buyers believe that these posts get much attention which means your company can understand customers’ pain points and work on customer experience to improve it.
6. Publish customer success stories
In the digital era, it doesn’t take much time or effort to find customer reviews. In fact, 82% of people read online reviews to understand whether a product or service can meet their needs and wants. B2B buyers also seek out social proof before making the purchase decision.
To ease the worried minds of your consumers and gain brand trust, publish customer success stories to show your social media followers how your company helps other buyers solve their problems.
Check out how Keap uses social media video posts to tell its potential customers about other people who get wonderful results when choosing the company’s products and services:
The best part? Keap knows how to convince B2B buyers to tell followers about their customer experience. Plus, putting text on screen, Keap remembers that not all viewers can watch a video with the sound on.
But if you don’t have an army of loyal customers who are ready to tell other buyers about their experiences, consider influencer marketing. For example, you can find a niche influencer and become him or her to be a brand ambassador which means this person will tell other users about your company in a positive way.
What is more, you can invite this brand ambassador to create a video post and explain how your business has helped to achieve business goals.
Boost B2B sales
Most B2B buyers are aged between 25 and 34 years which means they are millennials who use social media platforms during the buying process. Moreover, 78% of people use social media to discover new products and services and 66% of buyers prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service. Most social media platforms have shopping features such as product tags or clickable links that make the shopping experience better.
In short, you can boost B2B sales with the right social media video post ideas.
7. Announce new features or products/services
Whether you want to acquire new customers or keep your existing ones, it’s important to launch and announce new features or products from time to time. For example, if you have a marketing calendar, you can launch your feature or product in honor of a holiday and tell your customers about it in advance.
Over the last few years, video content has become an engaging method to tell your target audience about your updates, so it’s a good idea to use social media video posts that can explain your new products or features.
Once you have a new product, it’s high time to post videos that tell your followers about these benefits. Check out how FedEx used Facebook video post to tell about their extra services during the COVID-19:
FedEx made this video during lockdown, when both B2C and B2B buyers were worried about the shipping delays. Knowing customers’ pain points help to grab the attention and stand out from the crowd.
8. Feature explainer videos or demos
Just like common customers, B2B buyers want to be sure that your product or service can help to meet their needs. Thus, they often watch explainer videos or demonstration videos before buying your service.
Our recent report shows that 36% of customers want to see more explainer video style content, so it’s no wonder that explainer videos are the most commonly-created type and 72% of video marketers make these videos to help potential customers understand their products or services better.
Are you a small B2B company? It’s still important to invest time and money into video creation. Let’s take NapoleonCat, for example. The company made a great long-form explainer video that helped potential customers understand how to use the platform.
The explainer video shows potential customers how to use their app and what this would look like in their day-to-day life. For customers, this gives an opportunity to find out how to use it. As a result, they are more likely to choose you over your competitors as people remember 80% of what they see and do.
9. Organize a Q&A live session
With 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, live streaming is easily accessible. Moreover, modern customers crave authenticity, so going live is a great way to show your brand’s personality and interact with potential customers in real time. Plus, livestream can help you boost B2B sales if you provide customers with answers to their questions.
The solution? Organize a Q&A live session! The idea is simple yet powerful: Invite a brand advocate to answer customers’ questions about your product or service and help them understand that your company is worth working with.
To attract more viewers, it’s important to announce your Q&A live session in advance. For example, you can create an Instagram Story and add the countdown sticker so that interested users can get a notification about your session in advance. Check out how TailwindApp did it:
If you have 10k followers on Instagram, you can get access to a clickable Instagram Story link that gives you an opportunity to add a link to lead generation landing page where your interested followers can sign up for a livestream session and get information about it via email, phone, or social media alerts.
The bottom line
The rapid growth of social media platforms has changed the way B2B companies promote their products and services and interact with potential customers. With the popularity of video content, B2B companies have to create amazing social media videos that grab the attention of the target audience and help to turn followers into B2B customers.
Best B2B companies have realised the power of social media video posts, so there are many creative ideas that help to bring wonderful business results.
Author: Hugh Beaulac
Hugh Beaulac is a content manager behind MC2 Bid4Papers who also works as a social media manager. He has over 7 years of digital marketing experience, so Hugh often contributes to top-notch marketing blogs to share his tricks and tips.
