Marketing Strategy
What is the Most Trusted Social Media Platform in B2B?

What is the Most Trusted Social Media Platform in B2B?

December 18, 2019
3 min read

Marketers spend a good portion of their careers trying to get ahead of the curve when it comes to identifying and adopting the latest marketing trends. In fact, it’s probably one of the reasons why you’re here. But being the trending topic yourself—whether B2B brand or thought leader—is a challenging feat. How can you break through the noise on social media platforms to elevate your brand and gain traction for eBooks, blogs, and bylines if you’re one of so many fighting for the attention of internet passerby?

One way is to be on the right channels, and for B2B marketing that means tapping into the power of the B2B big three: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But not all of these platforms will work for your brand, so knowing which one is most trusted by buyers will help you focus your marketing time and energy on managing the channel that will give you the most ROI as a B2B company.

The Most Trusted Channel

So which one is most trusted? The numbers are in from the 2020 B2B Marketing Mix Report and there’s a true standout social medium: LinkedIn.

With more than 530 million users, LinkedIn is recognized as the number one B2B networking platform.1 It’s the most used by B2B professionals, garnering 9 billion content impressions from 3 million users sharing content each week.2 And data from this year’s B2B Marketing Mix shows it’s likely because users in the B2B world trust LinkedIn more than any other social media channel3—they trust it with their professional posts but also with their business posts.

The Mix surveyed B2B folks working in professional and business services, technology, advertising and marketing, health and life sciences, manufacturing, finance and insurance, and other areas of B2B business. Though Facebook is a close runner-up with 73% of those surveyed considering it their most used social media channel, a whopping 86% marked LinkedIn as their top platform.

Data also shows that respondents have reported seeing results and ROI from conducting paid social media campaigns. And if they’re using paid tactics, it’s likely on LinkedIn, where marketers have the ability to target prospects and leads via industry, location, job title, and more.

This makes sense, because trusted brands are often the ones producing new valuable in-platform tools for their customers to leverage in addition to connecting people and sharing helpful thought leadership content—all of which LinkedIn does well.

The 2019 B2B Trusted Brands Report also showed that even though both Facebook and Twitter have similar business marketing tools for reaching the customers of their customers, LinkedIn has really perfected this service, going above and beyond to meet the unique needs of today’s busy B2B markets. With options like Sponsored InMail, Sponsored Content, and Matched Audiences, LinkedIn is the only platform to perfect paid tactics for personalization and account-based marketing, letting marketers speak directly to prospects that are right for their business. And not only is it a trustworthy brand in functionality and appearance, but it  lets other companies appear more trustworthy by extension.

Tapping into Trust

How are other marketers like yourself tapping into the power of B2B’s most trusted social media platform? In many ways. It’s actually a great medium to use in experimenting with some of 2020’s top trends:

  • Retargeting: More companies are looking to launch retargeting campaigns to reconnect with leads who visit their website. LinkedIn is a great place for displaying those retargeting ads, so if you don’t have a retargeting method in place, you can roll this into your existing marketing efforts on the platform.
  • Paid Social Advertising: Like we mentioned above, LinkedIn is ahead of the pack when it comes to trust, and B2B marketers are regularly turning to LinkedIn to spend a good portion of their paid advertising budget. Many use LinkedIn’s Sponsored InMail and Sponsored Content tools to advertise events, content, and products and services at every level of the buyer’s journey.
  • Influencer Marketing: Influencers don’t just live on Instagram—they’re everywhere. All B2B companies can benefit from this type of marketing, which may be a little intimidating to people who aren’t used to putting themselves out there. But lead marketers, Presidents, VPs, CEOs, and even sales team members can position themselves and the brand as an industry thought leader to boost online brand awareness and sometimes produce leads. Hosting webinars, posting about industry trends, sharing useful tips… There are countless ways to engage with consumers and become a trusted advisor to people who could become customers.
  • Video Marketing: LinkedIn is the perfect place to practice video marketing if your business has yet to explore its benefits. Videos (especially ones with text or subtitles) are a great way to get LinkedIn users to pause in their feed, capturing their attention for a little longer than the average text post and placing more seeds of the brand in their awareness. Videos let you to tell stories that resonate with viewers in unique ways and show off your company and team with personality and character.

Do you agree with the data? Do you consider LinkedIn your most trusted brand? Explore new ways to leverage LinkedIn in your marketing strategy for 2020 to take advantage of all it has to offer in B2B.

Sources:

  1. LinkedIn for Leads, Sagefrog
  2. Market to Who Matters with the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Platform Overview, Keith Richey
  3. The 2019 B2B Trusted Brands Report, Sagefrog

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Mark Schmukler

Mark Schmukler, CEO and Co-founder of Sagefrog Marketing Group, brings more than 30 years of global marketing and consulting experience to the agency, leveraging his B2B background to lead brand strategy and business development. Headquartered in Doylestown, PA with offices in Philadelphia, Princeton, Boston and Washington, DC, Sagefrog is a top-ranked B2B marketing agency with specialties in healthcare, technology, industrial, and business services. Founded in 2002, Sagefrog’s mission is to accelerate client success through branding and strategy, websites and digital, content and inbound, and traditional marketing services. Visit Sagefrog.com or call 215.230.9024.

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