Should Businesses Selling B2B Attempt Relationships Via Social Media

This is something we’re thinking about at LeadGen Compass: should businesses that don’t sell to consumers, but sell business to business, be attempting to mimic the deep social success of brands like Steak-Ums or Wendy’s?

The question:

When advertising to individuals on social media, part of many current strategies is attempting to build parasocial relationships with a customer; as one social media strategist put it, “you want them to see your brand and think ‘friend.’” Is this different when you advertise to a business via social media? If so, how?

Our thought:

There are two ideas we keep top of mind. First, we know individuals use social media to be social with others. Second, we know most B2B products we work with are not one-step purchases. They tend to be multi-step decisions and higher dollar amounts. With those two ideas in mind, we use social media to expand our reach with awareness as the main objective. We want the audience we’re targeting to see our ads while using social media for whatever they are doing. Then we want them to think of us when they are back at work where the B2B decisions are made. We don’t want to chit-chat with them on Facebook, and they don’t want to either. We do want them to say, “oh, I know that brand/product/service” when we market to them at work. 

This may be different for B2B products like insurance sold by insurance agents, but even then we stick to our approach. 

If you have questions like this or want to hear about LeadGen Compass’ experience selling B2B on social media, contact us today.