How to write effective B2B social media posts

Anyone who has spent time on any social network knows that the intelligence, quality, and basic grammar of social media posts can get pretty poor. As a B2B company, you should not let the quality or effectiveness of your social media posts reach those levels. Whether you are writing a 140-character tweet or a 140-page eBook, you should strive for a clear, professional level of writing that truly represents you and your company.

Here are specific guidelines for writing effective B2B social media posts that will represent your company appropriately and motivate your audience to action:

3 Short effective B2B social media posts tips:

1. Length

Your posts need to be clear and concise to increase your social media engagement. Because your audience’s streams and news feeds are full of posts (a.k.a. noise), those that receive the most engagement are the ones that get to the point quickly. Here are some findings on social media post length:

• A study by Compendium shows a LinkedIn post is most effective at 16-25 words.
• Research from Buddy Media reveals that tweets under 100 characters have a 17% increase in engagement rates.
• Track Social found that Facebook posts under 70 characters have the highest levels of engagement.

2. Purpose

While some brands and people publish social media posts to increase brand awareness or be funny, as a B2B company, your posts should have more specific goals. For almost all of your social media posts, your goal will be to motivate your audience to act. Whether you are trying to increase blog post page visits, capture leads, or grow your social media network, every word you use in your post should work towards that goal.

A study by Twitter revealed that tweets that specifically asked people to download something via a link received 13% more clicks than the average. If you want your audience to click through, sign up, or share, then utilize action-oriented language. Phrases such as “click here” or “learn more” will entice them to click on shared content.

3. Edit

Proofreading software company Grammarly studied the spelling and grammar of brands on LinkedIn. They found that companies with fewer mistakes than their competitors consistently had higher market share.

This may be the most obvious tip, but it’s also the one that’s most often overlooked. As you write social posts, approach it like you’re writing a blog or whitepaper – proofread before publishing. Using a social media management tool allows you to save messages as drafts or message assets so other team members can proofread and approve the content before it goes live.

What other tips do you have for the social media managers out there? Be sure to leave them in the comments below!