5 B2B brands that have cracked the social media marketing code
Is Social Media Marketing relevant only for consumer brands? Not at all. Learn from these B2B brands on how to be a winner in the Social Media landscape
The minute you ask people about the brands that are rocking the social media landscape, everybody jumps in and starts talking about all the consumer brands like Oreo, Coca-Cola, Old Spice etc. For some reason none of the B2b brands get talked about. Many marketers still believe that there is no need for social media marketing in B2B. They think that B2B marketing is boring, lacks innovation and creativity. But I strongly disagree with that and to prove my point, I decided to write this article about 5 B2B brands that are rocking the social media landscape.
Why do B2B brands need to be on Social Media?
Even though this question itself warrants a separate blog post, I am going to make the answer extremely simple by quoting an article which I read on #Forbes by @INSEADKnowledge. The article’s headline on B2B social media marketing reads as “Social Media in B2B Marketing: Publish or Perish!” and I think this one quote establishes why it is extremely important for B2B marketers to be on Social Media. For marketers who are number driven this infographic by @obakhtar of @TheHubComms will explain the importance of Social Media in B2B marketing.
Now to the most exciting part, the 5 B2B brands that have cracked the social media code:
GENERAL ELECTRIC (GE): This is one B2B brand which has managed to win my heart and my mind with their social media efforts. I don’t think any other brand can make you fall in love with machines, factory floors and locomotives. The Instagram and Tumblr page of GE will surely make you fall in love with them. The best part is you go to the GE website where they clearly explain their approach and strategy on every social network with an interesting tagline. GE has mastered the winning formula of earned, paid and owned media and they exactly know what will work in every social networking site. Look at this video which explains how electricity is generated from “Gas turbines”. I never knew gas turbines were this sexy till I watched this video on YouTube.
Secret Code Of GE: The social media campaigns of GE go beyond their products and services, but at the same time they stick to something which is core to their business “SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY”. The social media team at GE is extremely creative and has the knack of converting dull, boring content into interactive videos, questions and images. This has helped GE not only create a huge community online, but also in getting the most important aspect of social media marketing right i.e. Engagement. Above all GE has mastered the art of “Digital story telling”.
AMEX: AMEX OPEN is another great example of a brand that has been extremely successful in creating a huge online community. They launched a separate website called “AMEX OPEN” which is targeted towards small businesses. The website and the social media channels are dedicated to helping out small business. Instead of trying to sell credit cards, AMEX helps out small businesses by giving them valuable advice and tips on nurturing their businesses. The community also works as a platform for small businesses to come and share their thoughts, ideas and experiences with one another.
Secret Code Of AMEX: I think AMEX is a winner in this space because they have followed the golden rule of social media marketing i.e. They have created a community for their target audience where they can collabarate instead of promoting their products and services.
Maersk Line: Many might not know the company Maersk Line, but might have seen their star logo, a shipping giant which operates in almost 100 countries. In 2012 Maersk Line won an award for the “Best Social Media Campaign of the year and Community Presence” in European Digital Communications Awards. They competed with almost 500 B2C brands. Maersk Line is present in almost 9 social channels and they have different objective and straegy for every social channel. Using Social Media, they even tackled a huge bad press which was created when a Maersk Line ship killed a whale. They created a pinterest campaign in memory of the whale and that became the most shared content on social with a ratio 1:1 sharing.
Secret Code of Maersk: The secret code of Maersk is that they looked at social media as a tool to connect and engage with their consumers and business partners and not as a tool to push their products and also they have clearly understood the importance of tackling negative publicity on social media and done it right.
Adobe: Adobe has hacked the social media landscape by empowering its 11000 employees across the globe to be Social Media ambassadors. Social media influences 20% of subscriptions of Adobe creative cloud and a greater percentage of Adobe employees are sharing content about Adobe on Twitter than any other tech brand employees in the world( Research by Social Look).
Secret Code Of Adobe: Adobe has clearly understood the importance of social selling and making employees as social media advocates. For that reason they have even launched a “Social Shift Training” to train employees on social media and almost 30% of the employees had finished this training as of Dec 2013.
5. SAP: SAP is another B2B brand which has been extremely successful in using social media. SAP has an effective and efficient social media marketing process in place which helps them juggle social media channels and 50 monthly promotional campaigns in 25 different industries. SAP’s Social Marketing Head- North America, Mr. Gerry Moran says in an article that they involve the entire marketing team of North America in this and they even have workshops for marketers which help them learn writing headlines and reformatting their content to generate maximum attention.
Secret Code Of SAP: The secret code of SAP in the words of Mr.Gerry Moran is “We believe our nonstop management of social media should always be aimed at “owning the presale touch” and building a relationship with our customers with relevant content”.
Important Things You Need To Execute Your B2B Social Media Strategy:
Finally before I end this blog I thought it would be great to share a very interesting and apt blog post written by Mr.Gerry Moran of SAP on “5 important things you need to execute your B2B Social Media Strategy”.
Now get ready to rock the social media with your B2B brands.
Do you know of any other B2B brands which are doing great on Social Media? Share them! Enjoyed my post?Please hit the recommend button and share it.
Sources Cited:
- Sprinklr case study on SAP “How SAP North America Keeps its Social Team Running”
- Social Media Examiner blog post “4 Ways to turn your employees in to your brand ambassadors”
- Sprout Social Insights: “How Maersk Line Container Shipping Turned B2B Social Media on Its Head”
