When it comes to social media marketing, there is a vibe of uncertainty. Many social media marketers have set up their accounts to spread the word out and build authority – working with the ‘conventional ways’ throughout. However, marketers expect something automagical to occur that leads to growth in a minimum span of time rather than linking their bottom line with their social media activities.
On the other hand, some marketers have already realized the worth of social media marketing and started to work out on the implementation of their overall marketing mix n social channels. To help the marketers learn from the leaders in the industry TrackMaven has released a ‘Social Media Impact Report 2016’ that pinpoints the most successful B2B industries on social media channels and their activities behind the scene.
THE PLAN OF ATTACK
To prepare the report, TrackMaven evaluated a year’s worth of content produced and published by 316 B2B brands across 17 different sectors on Social Channels. Social Platforms that were included in the report include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Based on TrackMaven’s analysis, the following is the summary of some key findings:
Companies in the Lead
In the report, leading companies are determined following simple criteria – audience growth and content engagement on social media channels. Based on that, engineering companies, biotech firms, and financial service providers are ranked the highest. The average audience growth on social channels for financial companies is recorded around 81.77% per brand. In addition, biotech companies are leading with most engaged followers featuring an average ratio of 12.46.
Machinery Manufacturers
Among other B2B industries, audience growth seems to entice machinery manufacturers in TrackMaven’s report. With a 129.02% follower growth rate B2B Machinery Manufacturers are ranked on top.
Software Providers
In the case of software providers, graphs witness high follower growth but with low engagement. The sector’s follower count is as high as 82% but the customer engagement ratio is lowly 2.62.
A SECTOR BREAKDOWN
Regardless of the sector, businesses strive to maintain a benchmark not just within but also across the industries. Such kind of comparison caters to unveiling opportunities, exposing strengths, discovering threats, and understanding weaknesses.
B2B industries operate in a huge number, each having different nature of business and audience. Based on that, certain industries rule over social media while others strive for recognition. Audiences active on social media channels belong to certain niches, the greater the number of active audiences from the industry’s relevant niche higher will be the audience growth and engagement in response to the right marketing approach.
Another report by Brandwatch illustrates the social presence of B2B companies within 10 different industries. It emphasizes insights associated with social media activity, average audience, PR hits, etc. The report provides the marketers with a chance to evaluate their brand on a company, industry, or generic B2B scale.
The analysis unveils the strengths and weaknesses of each industry in a clear and precise manner. The following are the key finding from the Bandwatch’s social media report:
Over two months, the B2B energy industry gained up to 2,659 PR hits. On the flip side, the industry’s promotion of negative to positive mention is marked 35.8% upon comparing with the industry average which is 24%.
B2B Owned Performance
The social climate we have today involves infinite B2B brands competing to gain dominance in the face of their share of voice and develop meaningful engagement with potential customers. One of the biggest challenges that firms confront is building a brand voice that relates to their target audience.
However, top-performing industries are seen sharing some common elements that cater to their social success:
Analysis of Facebook content suggests that more than half of B2B owned posts contain a photo. As marketers realized that engagement relies on visuals their commitment to photo-based posts began to pay off.
However, relying solely on an image-based post is not the only key. B2B brands with owned performance also post imageless statuses and other updates in face of links.
Smart brands choose to dig into insights and swap their poor performing posts with consistently engaging material like images.
Overall, up to 30 million B2B social interactions occur online each year. Social channels are providing B2B industries to take advantage of the opportunity by adapting to the shifting expectations of their customers, advocates, and critics.
