State of B2B Social Media Trends: Social Strategy Insights for 2024
We’re going to say it. Social media can be a tough place to be. So, we’re giving you a cheat sheet of the top B2B social media trends you need to know to create a successful social strategy.
Social media platforms are constantly evolving, with frequent updates to algorithms and new features. Sometimes it can be hard to spark creativity and know what to post or what’s the best network to build your brand presence. And, on top of that, it’s important to produce high-quality content that provides value to your audience.
Keeping up with these changes can be as exciting as it is confusing.
At Oktopost, our mission is to empower social media managers and help them do their jobs to their best potential. So we collected all the insights you need to put your best foot forward and create maximum opportunity from social media.
Without further ado, here is a full breakdown of the B2B social media trends we’ve found so you can benchmark your strategy to your wider industry…
The insights we’ve uncovered:
- Where Are B2B Marketers Posting Most Often?
- Content is King: But Which Content Type Takes the Crown?
- Which Channels and Content Types Are Maximizing Social Conversions?
Where Are B2B Marketers Posting Most Often?
LinkedIn snags first place for the most popular social media network B2B marketers posted on in 2023, and since it’s the hub of B2B audiences, we can’t say we’re surprised. In fact, 42% of social media posts made by B2B organizations were posted from LinkedIn in 2023.
Given the fact that 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to generate leads and 62% find that LinkedIn generates leads at twice the rate of the next-best performing social platform, we can be sure this trend will continue into this year.
While LinkedIn takes the lead in posting frequency, Facebook comes in second with 26% share of posts, closely followed by X (formally Twitter) with 23%. According to our research, we can see that LinkedIn was posted on almost two times more than the third most popular network, X.
When we break the data down by average monthly posts and visualize it in a bar graph, we can see clearly the popularity of LinkedIn in 2023, compared to other social networks.
LinkedIn Reigns Supreme, Yet B2B Social Value Extends Beyond
LinkedIn dominates in posting frequency, but don’t underestimate the potential of other social platforms for your strategy. This value will depend on where your audience is online.
Despite the surge in video marketing, you might wonder why YouTube’s posting frequency remains low. B2B marketers are favoring shorter video formats for platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Whereas, YouTube thrives for longer, informative content like webinars and tutorials, requiring more time and resources to produce.
X is Trailing Behind: Is X Losing Ground in the B2B Social Arena?
Despite its historical prominence in B2B marketing, X now ranks as the third most popular B2B social network, a shift from its previous second-place standing above Facebook in 2022.
We’re placing our bets that Twitter transitioning to X is the reason why its popularity dipped, as marketers hesitated amid uncertainty about the platform’s future direction.
But this doesn’t mean you should abandon it completely. As the initial shock of the rebrand subsides, we anticipate continued marketing efforts on the platform, given its effectiveness in reaching B2B audiences.
Whether it will return to pre-X performance days, only time will tell.
A New Player is Gaining Momentum: Watch Out for the Rise of B2B TikTok Marketing
We’re sure TikTok is already on your radar. Traditionally viewed as a platform fit for B2C marketing, and the occasional (okay, addictive) scroll, B2B marketing is entering the TikTok arena.
Not only is TikTok a powerful platform to leverage for boosting brand awareness, but it has also become the new go-to search engine for Gen Z. Statistics show that over 40% of Gen Z use it as a search engine, and 1 in 10 Gen Zers are trading in Google for TikTok.
With Gen Z entering the workplace, they’ll take these habits through the doors with them. So if you want to reach the next generation of professionals that hold influence, you’ll want to consider meeting them where they are online.
Oktopost Pro Tip for Managing Your Social Presence
The reality is, LinkedIn will always be integral to B2B marketing. Especially when it comes to social selling and employee advocacy.
But when it comes to building out your wider strategy, always remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. What works for one business, might not be the formula for success for another.
When deciding where to focus your social presence, remember this tip: you don’t have to be everywhere, you just need to be where your audience is.
Content is King: But Which Content Type Takes the Crown?
The content types we’re comparing:
- Image: Social posts containing one image
- Link: Social posts containing a link
- Text: Social posts containing text-only
- Video: Social posts containing a video
- Gallery: Social posts containing several images, like carousel posts
- Gif: Social posts containing a GIF
As you can see from the chart above, images were the most popular content type B2B organizations posted, coming in with a whopping 51%. While links came in with 23% share, it’s important to note that other posts most likely also included a link in the copy.
Only 13% of posts were text-only, meaning that most of the time B2B organizations posted on social media, a content asset was attached.
What Content Type Ruled Engagement?
Gallery posts take the lead
As per the graph, you can clearly see that gallery posts (carousel posts) are far ahead, bringing in the most engagements. In fact, gallery posts had 2.5 times more engagement than the average engagement earned by all content types in 2023.
We’re sure you might have already heard the news that LinkedIn stopped gallery posts back in December 2023. But rest assured, you can still post them.
Simply upload your images as a PDF with the document feature, the same way they were posted before the carousel feature was released.
Simple text-only posts are a strong contender
Coming in second place for most engagements, are text-only posts.
While visually compelling formats understandably grab attention, well-crafted written content can still captivate and resonate with audiences. Sometimes simple thought leadership posts can go a long way.
So, when you feel strapped for time when trying to create the perfect image and want to just throw your expertise into a brand post – they’re clearly effective in garnering engagement.
Oktopost Pro Tip for Boosting Engagement
Just because gallery posts came out on top for the most engaging content type, does not mean you should spam your social feeds with them. While they’re important to include in your social strategy, your audience will get bored if your content is repetitive – and suddenly they won’t be so engaging anymore.
It’s important to keep your content varied so it continues to be interesting for your audience.
While we would love everything we post out to gain hundreds of likes, comments, and shares overnight, we need to give our audience a good reason to interact with our content.
So here’s a tip from us: include a call to action in your posts to encourage discussions and conversations in the comment section.
By asking your audience to share their expertise, they will feel included in your brand community, and eventually, more professionals will want to get involved in the conversation, boosting your engagement.
Which Channels and Content Types Are Maximizing Social Conversions?
We couldn’t write a social trends blog without analyzing what matters to social media managers most – which networks and content types are making the biggest impact on your bottom line.
Considering that LinkedIn was the most popular network for B2B marketing in 2023, it’s probably unsurprising that LinkedIn had 3 times more conversions than the next-performing social network, Facebook.
Despite the dip in usage of X this year, it’s interesting to highlight that X fell behind Facebook’s conversion numbers only by a small amount.
But, when it comes to which content type is leading to the most conversions, the insights we uncovered are very interesting.
Even though images were the most popular content type to post for B2B organizations and posts with a link had the least amount of engagements, links brought in the most amount of conversions.
And in reality, this is probably the least surprising insight of all. Links give audiences a tangible journey to follow to click through to your website.
The second most converting content type was images, followed by videos. When comparing their performance, conversions by links were approximately two times higher than conversions by images.
It’s also interesting to see that while gallery posts were by far the most engaging content type, they came in fourth for conversions, considerably lower than the top three converting content types.
Oktopost Pro Tip for Increasing Conversions
LinkedIn excels in B2B marketing, making a LinkedIn strategy crucial for boosting conversions. As well as this, to increase conversions, ensure your posts offer actionable next steps, such as links to blogs, sign-up pages, or demos.
However, relevance is key. If your content doesn’t resonate with your audience, they won’t engage. Understand your audience’s pain points and demonstrate how your product addresses their challenges to create compelling content. Delivering value to your audience will drive conversions across your social strategy.
B2B Social Media Trends: What To Focus On In 2024
With the B2B social media trends of 2023 now at your fingertips, optimize your 2024 strategy to make it your best-performing year yet.
Here’s what you should focus on:
- Doubling down on your LinkedIn strategy: Clearly, LinkedIn is the most important place to establish your brand presence, reach your audience, and increase your social conversions. So, investing in LinkedIn is crucial.
- Investing in high-engaging content types: Diversify your strategy with different content types including the top three most engaging content types: gallery posts, text, and video.
- Understanding your audience:While the numbers don’t lie, at the end of the day, humanizing your content and creating an online community that educates your audience is what will make the biggest impact on your strategy’s success and bottom line.
Remember, while the data reveals fascinating insights, this doesn’t mean this is how all social strategies should be run. After all, creativity and standing out from your industry is what makes marketing strategies so successful. Prioritize the strategies that work specifically for your brand, impact your bottom line most, and appeal to your customers and audience.
Learn how to use Oktopost’s social media management software for a streamlined social strategy and to accurately measure the success of your marketing efforts.
