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4 minute read
In the realm of B2B marketing, email often reigns supreme as the go-to tool for demand generation. And rightly so—it's personal, measurable, and cost-effective. But if email is the trusted workhorse, then social media is the sleek, high-powered engine that far too few marketers are even starting.
Despite billions of active users across social platforms, only a little over half of marketers actually tap into social media for demand generation. That’s a shocking gap, considering how pivotal social can be in nurturing leads, building interest, and accelerating deal cycles.
This blog explores why social media is an essential, yet underutilized, component of demand generation. We'll walk through how you can harness social to generate, warm up, and convert B2B leads by focusing on four key tactics:
- Active participation in social groups
- Strategic distribution of content
- Cultivation of brand image
- Targeted social ads
Let’s dig in.
Why Social Media is a Goldmine for B2B Demand Generation
Social media is no longer just for selfies and memes. It’s a living ecosystem where B2B buyers research products, learn from peers, and evaluate vendors before ever filling out a lead form. In fact, according to LinkedIn, 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make buying decisions.
Yet despite this, B2B companies often approach social with a B2C mindset or worse, neglect it altogether. Instead of recognizing it as a powerful channel for inbound interest, it's relegated to brand awareness or an afterthought post queue.
But social isn’t just about awareness—it’s about action. From driving traffic and leads to directly contributing to pipeline, social can and should be a vital part of your demand gen engine.
Here are 4 key tactics to make Social count…
- Participate in Niche Social Groups: Build Trust Through Engagement
Whether it's a private Slack community, a LinkedIn group, or an invite-only forum, social groups are where B2B decision-makers go to share challenges and get advice.
Too many brands treat these spaces like billboards instead of what they are: conversations.
Best Practices:
- Be Helpful, Not Salesy: Share insights, offer value, and comment thoughtfully before ever plugging your product.
- Identify Active Communities: Not every group is worth your time. Look for engagement, not just member count.
- Assign Internal Champions: Have someone from sales, product, or marketing join and participate regularly as a real human.
By showing up consistently, you build authority and trust—long before you ask for anything in return.
Case in Point: Many early-stage SaaS companies build their first 100 customers directly through niche online communities.
- Content Distribution: Put Your Content Where It Will Be Seen
Your team invests time and budget into creating stellar whitepapers, webinars, videos, and blogs. Don’t let that content gather dust on your website. Social media is the distribution engine that ensures your assets get into the right hands.
Best Practices:
- Repurpose Strategically: Turn a whitepaper into a thread, a blog into an infographic, a webinar into podcast.
- Platform Relevance: LinkedIn for thought leadership, Twitter for real-time updates, YouTube for educational how-tos.
- Post Consistently: Build an editorial calendar with 3-5 posts per week across channels, including curated content from partners.
Distribution isn’t just about blasting links—it’s about feeding your ICP content in formats they prefer, at times they’re active, and on channels they already trust.
Recommendation: Automate scheduling and analyze engagement: Use Buffer, Hootsuite, or or a marketing automation platform like HubSpot to schedule and track content performance across platforms.
- Brand Image: Cultivate a Personality That Attracts
In B2B, people buy from people. If your brand’s social presence is robotic, inconsistent, or forgettable, you’re missing out.
When your brand shows up consistently across social platforms with a clear message and voice, it becomes magnetic. Social is where you showcase the human side of your company—your values, your culture, your tone, and your story. This attracts not only leads but future employees, partners, and advocates.
Best Practices:
- Define Your Voice: Are you witty, inspiring, technical? Stay consistent across posts in both your tone of voice and visual identity.
- Show Your People: Highlight employee stories, behind-the-scenes snapshots, or team milestones.
- Share Customer Wins: Use social proof to validate your product in real time.
Social presence is brand equity. A strong, humanized brand builds interest and trust before a demo is even booked.
Bonus: A vibrant social brand also boosts ad performance. Familiarity breeds clicks.
- Targeted Social Ads: Show Up Where Your Buyers Are
Paid social advertising allows you to target your ideal customer profiles (ICPs) with precision. Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and Facebook give you robust filters to segment by job title, company size, industry, location, and even group membership.
Best Practices:
- Build Buyer Personas: Know exactly who you're targeting. CMOs in SaaS? IT managers in Fintech? Each persona gets a tailored message.
- Use Retargeting: Serve ads to people who visited your pricing page, watched your video, or clicked your last campaign email.
- Test Formats: Use a mix of carousel ads, lead gen forms, and video snippets to see what resonates best.
Paid ads are powerful not just for capturing attention but also for nurturing existing leads through multi-touch exposure.
Overcoming Skepticism in B2B Social Marketing
One reason many B2B marketers are hesitant about social is because they expect immediate ROI. Unlike email, which provides direct attribution, social works more subtly. It shapes perception, warms up leads, and nudges intent over time.
This doesn’t mean it’s unmeasurable. It means you need the right KPIs:
- Engagement rate (likes, comments, shares)
- Brand impressions
- Follower growth
- Traffic to key pages (use UTM parameters)
- Assisted conversions (Google Analytics or HubSpot tracking)
Social is a top-of-funnel powerhouse that fuels your pipeline if you give it the right time and attention.
Final Thoughts
Email may always be the B2B marketer’s comfort zone, but social media is the growth engine you can no longer afford to ignore. It’s where conversations are happening, decisions are being influenced, and buyers are spending their time.
If you want to generate meaningful demand, nurture qualified leads, and build a pipeline that converts—you need a social strategy that goes beyond sporadic posts.
Focus on:
- Targeted social ads
- Engaging in real conversations in the right groups
- Distributing content with purpose
- Cultivating a brand that people trust and want to follow
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