If you’re not updating your B2B social media strategies for 2024, you’re missing a trick. The social media landscape is constantly evolving, and if you aren’t evolving with it, you will be left behind. But this doesn’t just mean copying what the influencers are doing.

As a B2B content creator, your aims and goals for social media are different to those of the e-commerce content creators that tend to rule the pocket screen. So, what should you do?

This article explores eight trends you can follow in 2024 to keep your social media marketing fresh. And don’t forget to measure your results! The most effective way to get these trends to work for you is to measure engagement, tweak your strategy, and measure again.
Let’s dive in.
 

1. User-Generated Content

One of the biggest hurdles for B2Bs on social media is promoting empathy and authenticity. You’re a business and you’re targeting other businesses. Infusing this transaction with a little fun and humour rather than “corporate speak” can be challenging.

User-generated content is content that has been generated by your customers – businesses! Now, these businesses are more than likely B2C, which means they are practiced at marketing themselves on social media to the average Joe.

Ask your customers to leave testimonials on social media or even better, short videos, that you can share. The great thing about this trend is that it works well on all social media channels, from LinkedIn to TikTok.
 

2. Personalisation

Tailoring your social media content for your target audience is an SMM basic. But this year, let’s take it further. The concept of hyper-personalization is about refining your targeting based on customer engagement – it’s an ongoing process, not a quick 5-minute job choosing segments.

One way to do this is to create detailed customer profiles. The more you can refine each profile, the better. You want to know not just what platforms they are using but what time of day they are active, what they respond best to, what other channels do they engage with, etc. This could be an opportunity to use AI to analyse all this data and form a strategy.

For some B2B businesses, it may even make sense to choose five businesses that are active on social media and personalise your content just for them!
 

3. Long-Form Video

The world has been obsessed with short-form video content for the past few years, particularly with the rising popularity of TikTok. But for some B2B businesses, this might not be a suitable strategy. You aren’t targeting the average scroller who has a 45-second attention span – you’re targeting professionals, business owners and high-performers.

It makes sense that they may respond better to in-depth, long-form content.

Now, that doesn’t mean you can upload a two-hour-long lecture to YouTube and reap the benefits. Long-form content needs just as much care and careful curation as short-form content. Two to five-minute videos to explain FAQs and directly answer your audience’s questions are a good start. Once you’ve built a good following, you can also explore live streams – they’re a wonderful way to connect on a personal level with other business owners and quite literally talk to them directly.
 

4. Omnichannel Marketing

The concept of omnichannel marketing is simple: you use multiple channels in harmony to create a journey. So, rather than posting the same video on your website, in the newsletter, and on social media, you make it a journey.

Perhaps you start with a short and snappy “trailer” for your upcoming business event on Facebook and YouTube, where your audience is most active. These posts direct your audience to your website, where they can reserve a seat or sign up to watch the event virtually. Afterwards, you clip the content you recorded of the event into smaller pieces and post these on LinkedIn. Then you can mention the success of the event in your newsletter and link to the LinkedIn posts. Businesses that interact with your posts on LinkedIn can then be reached by message to convert into sales.

In a way, omnichannel marketing is about drawing social media into your sales funnel. 
 

5. Sustainability and Responsibility

Consumers are committing to sustainability and environmental responsibility. So, the businesses that cater to them are also taking on these commitments. When it becomes the consumers’ priority, businesses adjust their strategies to match. Now, that’s where you step in.

Your B2B marketing must focus on meeting the needs of businesses in your audience. They now care about sustainability and responsibility, so you must too. How can your products help these businesses in their moral and ethical goals?

Put the answer to that question in your social media content! The trick here is to avoid greenwashing. Don’t flush your authenticity down the drain by making false claims. It’s okay to be a work in progress – just show your commitment to making your business more sustainable and responsible for the environment.
 

6. Interactive Content

Use polls, quizzes, surveys, and live discussions to make your social media content more interactive. YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn would be the traditional places for this kind of content – they encourage retweets, replies, comments and lively discussions. But Instagram has also introduced survey tools to the platform, and you shouldn’t underestimate the comments section on TikTok either.

Making your content interactive doesn’t just mean posting a question and hoping for a response. You need to interact with your audience too – “you”-have to start the conversation. This ties closely to our seventh trend for B2B social media marketing in 2024.
 

7. Building a Community

Building communities on social media is all about developing a loyal following who respond to the value you offer with their own value. It’s all give-and-take. Focus on building long-lasting and meaningful relationships with the businesses you sell to.  This means that the interaction shouldn’t stop when the sale has been made. Continue to build that relationship on social media – comment on their posts, ask how it’s going, and just generally support their marketing efforts.

This not only boosts your chances of a secondary sale but also shows any leads who are checking you out on social media that you are a great business that cares! You boost your reach far beyond the companies in your community.

And having a community means that when you post a new video, you know you’re guaranteed to get at least 10 likes or shares.
 

8. Employee Advocacy

According to Harvard Business Review, employees in 2024 are greatly concerned about AI and are looking for greater benefits and flexibility at work. Social media is the perfect place to advocate for employees, sole traders, digital nomads and small business owners who share these concerns – and may be potential customers.

You can create an authentic link and show empathy for these concerns by posting behind-the-scenes shots of how you run your business and treat your employees. Be a role model for your B2B audience – become the influencer!
 

Summary

For B2B marketing on social media, the trick to 2024 is to make it more personal, more authentic, more responsible, and more targeted. Shake up your strategy and above all, don’t forget to measure the results and adjust accordingly!