The Big B2B Social Media Marketing Plan

After sharing our “big social media marketing plan,” which illustrates how different social and traditional tools can be integrated to form a complete social media marketing plan, we realized that it does not apply very well to B2B companies.

While B2C companies target end users, B2B companies  target other companies, making it hard to imagine how social media can be of relevance to them. Nonetheless, we will try to show you how social media can be an important marketing channel to some B2B marketers.

This article wasn’t written to convince B2B marketers that social media is a must-have. Rather, it serves to destroy the notion that social media is irrelevant to their business.

Big Picture: B2C vs B2B

Let’s start off by comparing how a B2B’s social media plan differs from a B2C’s.

B2C

The plan is straightforward. A B2C communication message is targeted directly at end users. Catch the details here.

B2B

Before we start, here are two definitions to ensure that we’re on the same page:

Key accounts = Businesses or executives who can make purchasing/engagement decisions; clients of B2B businesses

End users = Consumers who eventually use your product

Social media can be effective in targeting key accounts online, but how about end users (if applicable)? Does a B2B company have any business in targeting them? The end users are not the target audience, but they are the ones who would eventually consume the product. Paying some attention to them to build awareness might do the company some good.