How to Choose the Right Social Media Platforms for B2B (With Top Picks)

Successful B2B social media marketing relies on using the right platforms. Unlike with consumer goods, you’re not targeting the general population. This means you need to strategically choose B2B social media platforms with an engaged B2B community.

Moreover, each social media platform offers unique features to engage B2B audiences throughout their path to purchase. Think of engaging YouTube videos for a detailed demo of how a product works or LinkedIn documents to share your product deck. So the right platforms can help you maximize your reach, engage the right people, and drive conversions.

This post walks you through the process of selecting the best social media platforms for B2B companies. We also share our recommendations for leading B2B-focused social platforms to start with.

 

Why Your B2B Business Needs Social Media Marketing

It’s a well-known fact that social media is effective for marketing B2C products. But it’s not just B2C brands that can benefit from social media. With over 5 billion people using social media, it only makes sense that some of those users are also business owners and decision makers. 

These users increasingly turn to social media platforms for B2B insights and industry news. It’s where they interact with like-minded individuals, grow their professional networks, and learn about new solutions. This makes it a vital channel to reach and engage B2B audiences as you consistently share high-quality, valuable content. 

No wonder social media is the top content distribution channel for B2B marketers. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 89% of B2B marketers distribute content through organic social media. Social media is also the third most impactful distribution channel, with 42% of B2B marketers saying that it produces the best results.

And it’s not just organic posts that drive results for B2B marketers. Paid social ranks second among advertising platforms that produce the best results.

This makes sense since social media platforms come with powerful advertising tools to improve targeting and lead generation. You can focus your ad targeting to reach only the most relevant users, which helps you effectively generate leads while reducing your ad spend. 

Why Choosing the Right B2B Social Media Platform is Critical

Every social media platform is different—whether it’s in terms of content formats, functionalities, demographics, or communication style. These will influence how you interact with your audience and how you generate leads.

So it’s important to choose a B2B social media platform that perfectly aligns with your needs. Otherwise, you risk wasting your time and resources on a platform that drives little to no engagement. Here’s what will happen if you’re not marketing on the right B2B social media platform:

• You won’t be able to gain followers because your target audience isn’t using the platform.
• Your posts won’t reach the right people, meaning that you’re simply sending out posts into the void. 
• You’re spending time and resources to create content without generating any returns.
• You can’t get your message across to the intended audience.
• You won’t have access to tools needed to market a B2B product.

On the other hand, the right social media platform can help you:

• Effectively reach a relevant B2B audience and maximize your reach
• Leverage content formats that engage your target audience
• Drive higher engagement and improve your return on investment (ROI)
• Leverage lead gen tools to effectively drive more leads 
• Amplify your brand message using advertising and targeting tools 

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing Social Media Platforms for B2B

With the above benefits considered, it’s crucial to take a strategic approach when selecting the right social media platform for B2B marketing. Below are some of the key factors to consider when choosing your B2B social media platform.

Target Audience Demographics

First, consider the platform’s audience demographics and compare it against your target audience profile. What types of people are using the platform? Are they the same types of people who will find value in your offering? 

This will help you decide on a platform that’s most likely to help you reach your target audience. Consider some of the following audience characteristics of each platform to see if they align with your needs:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Household income
• Race and ethnicity
• Community
• Industry/niche
• Organization size
• Job title

You can check out the latest data from the Pew Research Center on the audience demographics of different social media platforms. 

Content Type Suitability

What types of content does the platform support? This is another major factor that will influence your decision. 

Platforms like LinkedIn support lengthy text posts and document uploads, which makes it ideal for informative text-based content. Meanwhile, YouTube focuses exclusively on videos, making it ideal for in-depth explainer videos and demos. 

Instagram, on the other hand, supports a variety of visual content formats and time-sensitive Stories. This makes it perfect for sharing entertaining, bite-sized information and creating awareness. For instance, Trello uses Instagram to share Reels and other visual content to share feature updates and share engaging information. The goal is to entice the audience into using these features.

Carefully consider the types of B2B content you want to use. Then choose the platforms that support those content types. You may even choose multiple social media platforms to share different types of content for various stages of the B2B marketing funnel.

Engagement Rates

It doesn’t matter if a platform has plenty of registered users relevant to your target domain. If those users aren’t engaged on the platform, your social media campaigns will fall flat, resulting in wasted resources. Make sure you’re focusing your efforts on platforms that are capable of driving significant engagement.

Consider the average engagement of each platform to see which ones have the potential to help you engage your audience. If possible, you should also look at the average engagement of accounts in your industry across key B2B social media platforms. This will further help you narrow your focus on platforms where people in your industry are most likely to engage with relevant B2B brands.

For instance, RivalIQ found that while the median Facebook engagement rate is 0.063%, tech and software companies see a significantly lower engagement (0.03%). But on Instagram, the industry sees a median engagement of 0.44%, equaling the platform median of 0.43%.

X is where the industry far surpasses the platform’s median of 0.029%, with a median engagement rate of 0.036%. This gives you an idea of which social media platforms will drive the most engagement for B2B companies in this sector. 

Algorithmic Reach

The reach of your organic social media marketing campaigns mostly depends on the platform’s algorithm. If the algorithm is designed to get your content in front of a highly relevant audience, your campaign is likely to reach more people.

Most social media algorithms factor in user interactions when deciding which content to show to each user. So being able to garner that initial engagement is vital. Additionally, platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook also consider a user’s connections, making it easier to reach more people with your content.

Keep this in mind when you weigh your platform options. Ideally, you’ll want to focus on platforms that offer a decent algorithmic reach so you can reach your marketing goals organically.

B2B-Focused Features

Finally, consider if the platform offers tools that are particularly suitable for B2B campaigns. For example, Facebook’s robust targeting capabilities help you fine-tune your social media ads and serve them to only the most relevant users. You can get really granular with your targeting to target audiences based on behaviors and interests. It even lets you exclude people who have an existing connection with your page.

Meanwhile, tools like the LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are designed to streamline B2B lead generation. This allows you to set up Message Ads and Sponsored Content where form fields are automatically pre-populated. This will help you speed up the process of capturing lead information and generate more leads through your paid ads. 

These are just a few examples of the features that are highly useful when marketing on social media for B2B brands. LinkedIn, in particular, comes with a lot more B2B-focused tools to help you build impactful social media marketing campaigns. Consider the various platform-specific features offered by other channels and how they can serve your B2B marketing efforts.

Overview of Top B2B Social Media Platforms

From what you can see so far, it’s clear that not all social media platforms are equally effective for B2B marketing. With the unique features, audience types, and B2B networking capabilities considered, below are some of the best B2B social media platforms.

LinkedIn

As the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn is the number one place to market on social media for B2B companies. This is where people go to learn about key B2B insights through thought leadership content.

One of the main reasons why B2B marketers see the most success on LinkedIn is because of the audience demographics. The professional environment of the platform makes it an ideal channel for reaching key decision-makers and building industry connections. 

In fact, LinkedIn boasts 65 million decision-makers along with 10 million C-suite executives. This is why it delivers the best value for B2B marketers, with 85% of respondents in the CMI study vouching for it.

The LinkedIn algorithm also contributes to the success of B2B brands on the platform. While it accounts for interactions, it also considers a user’s connections when deciding what content to display. This means that a user may see posts from accounts they don’t follow when people from their connections engage with them. So, there’s a good chance that users will discover posts that are highly relevant to them, which will enhance visibility for many B2B companies.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn Groups give you the chance to interact with like-minded individuals and grow your network. This is crucial for building brand credibility and improving trust.

Moreover, LinkedIn offers targeted social media advertising solutions to help you run impactful ad campaigns. Besides Lean Gen Forms, you can make use of ad features like Dynamic Ads, Video Ads, Sponsored Content, and Sponsored Messaging to effectively target the right users. 

👤Target Audience: Decision-makers, C-suite executives

📈Best-Performing Content Types: Thought leadership posts, B2B research findings, case studies

✔️Pros:

• B2B-focused platform to reach key decision-makers and C-suite executives
• Improved chance of visibility for organic posts
• Robust marketing and advertising tools to power your B2B campaigns

❌Cons:

• Over-reliance on connections
• Expensive to advertise

Facebook

With over 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook continues to secure the top spot in terms of popularity. This makes it one of the social media channels that B2B marketers can’t afford to sleep on. After all, with such an expansive user base, there’s a good chance it can get your brand in front of a relevant B2B audience and help you boost brand awareness.

Plus, Facebook’s Business Suite comes with powerful features to streamline your social media management. It recommends tasks to set up your business for success—whether it involves publishing an ad or publishing a Facebook Story. Facebook also offers social media analytics tools like Audience Insights give you a comprehensive understanding of your audience to build campaigns that resonate.

Facebook also provides robust targeting options to fine-tune your B2B campaigns and focus on users who are most relevant to your business. It lets you filter your audience targeting by factors like job title, company size, industry, and more. This allows you to effectively zero in on key decision-makers and generate more leads from your paid ads. 

Even Google leverages Facebook ads to promote its advertising solutions, targeting small business users.

So although it’s generally seen as a platform for B2C marketing, it’s equally valuable for B2B companies. Moreover, Facebook gives you the chance to grow your community through specific industry groups. 

👤Target Audience: Decision-makers, C-suite executives, industry practitioners

📈Best-Performing Content Types: Thought leadership posts, videos, images

✔️Pros:

• Robust targeting tools to zero in on the right target audience
• Powerful social media management features

❌Cons:

• Lower organic visibility

YouTube

The CMI study reveals that videos produce the best results for B2B marketers. As the popularity of video grows, B2B brands will need to shift their attention to platforms like YouTube.

Being the second most popular social media platform, YouTube gives you the perfect opportunity to build brand awareness. It even ranks third among social media channels that deliver the most value for B2B marketers, according to the CMI study. 

And since YouTube videos come up in relevant Google search results, it can even contribute to better search visibility. This makes it a crucial part of your B2B video marketing efforts.

The audio-visual nature of YouTube gives you the perfect chance to showcase your expertise and build brand credibility. As the platform supports long-form video, it’s particularly useful for sharing explainer videos, demos, podcasts, and webinars. 

You can even share video testimonials from clients to prove your expertise. These types of insightful, value-driven content can effectively attract leads for your B2B company. 

ShipBob uses the platform to highlight a dynamic group of founders and operators who have leveraged their 3PL solution. These video interviews serve as testimonials to showcase what the company can do for other businesses.

👤Target Audience: Industry practitioners, professionals

📈Best-Performing Content Types: Explainer videos, product demos, client testimonials

✔️Pros:

• Engaging audio-visual format to engage your target audience
• Better search visibility through optimized videos

❌Cons:

• Video production is time-consuming

Instagram

Although Instagram’s younger user base and highly visual nature make it an ideal platform for B2C marketing, it can be equally impactful for marketing your B2B solutions. This is particularly true for B2B companies with a greater focus on visual branding or those targeting a younger, digitally native audience. 

It’s no wonder Instagram ranks fourth among B2B social media platforms that deliver the most value, according to the CMI study. Features like Stories, interactive stickers, polls, and Reels give you creative ways to market on social media for B2B brands. Think: quizzes to test your audience on their industry knowledge, Stories to show behind-the-scenes moments, or Reels to share your company culture.

With its various storytelling potential and interactive features, Instagram is a particularly ideal social networking channel for B2B brands in creative and visually oriented sectors. Tech companies can also make use of it to engage a younger target demographic. See how Intel creatively uses a short video to tell a story of how their business client has benefited from their AI solutions.

👤Target Audience: Industry practitioners, professionals

📈Best-Performing Content Types: Interactive content, behind-the-scenes glimpses, company culture content

✔️Pros:

• Tools to get creative with your B2B storytelling
• Interactive features to drive high levels of engagement

❌Cons:

• Less focus on decision-makers and C-suite executives

X (Twitter)

Of course, no discussion on social media for B2B marketing would be complete without X (formerly known as Twitter). The platform’s fast-paced nature and algorithm’s focus on recency make it ideal for staying on top of the latest B2B news. It’s where the latest discussions on crypto, finance, and other B2B-related topics take place.

The live updates and real-time responses make it particularly ideal to engage in trending discussions related to your industry. You can participate in industry conversations, engage in thought leadership, add to trending discussion threads, and build your brand authority. Similarly, it creates an opportunity to address customer support questions and ramp up your social media customer service. 

Sparktoro’s Rand Fish regularly starts relevant discussions on the latest industry news and product updates. This approach to thought leadership has helped to build credibility and trust for the company.

👤Target Audience: Industry practitioners, professionals, decision-makers

📈Best-Performing Content Types: Thought leadership, industry news

✔️Pros:

• Live interaction opportunities to drive real-time engagement
• Greater focus on relevance than other B2B social media platforms

❌Cons:

• May take time to build organic visibility

Strengthen Brand Influence on Social Media with Ninja Promo

Choosing the best platform to market your B2B brand on social media is only the beginning. You need a powerful strategy to effectively build your presence on those platforms. Between managing and growing your business, this can prove to be a challenge. That’s why it helps to outsource your social media marketing to the experts.

Ninja Promo is a premier B2B social media marketing agency to effectively grow your presence on the right platform. We help you create a tailored strategy, starting from strategic platform selection to content creation and campaign measurement. 

With in-depth knowledge of industry trends and the social media landscape, we power your strategy with content that gives you a competitive edge. We help you maximize reach and engagement with targeted ad campaigns and continuous optimization. Boost your influence and credibility and drive more leads with Ninja Promo’s B2B social media marketing solution.