B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the art of attracting, engaging and inspiring communities on social networks to discover, consume, share and act on brand social content.

 

92% of companies today consider social media important for their business but keeping up with the latest best practices, social media platforms and changes in the industry can be a challenge for brand marketers. Recognized as a top social media blog by Social Media Examiner and many others, TopRank solves that challenge by sharing social media marketing best practices, industry news, interviews, book reviews and liveblogging of presentations at industry conferences.

 

Browse our social media marketing articles to find the answers to your most pressing social media questions.

 

15+ Top Tips For B2B Marketers To Optimize & Humanize LinkedIn Profiles

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Feb 15th, 2023
B2B Marketing, LinkedIn

15+ LinkedIn profile optimizations for B2B marketing collage image with magnifying glass

Since its formation LinkedIn* has been the leading business social media platform, and with increasing numbers of brands and users having turned away from Twitter since its 2022 ownership change and subsequent policy shifts, in 2023 LinkedIn has grown to over 900 million members.

With interest in LinkedIn at a new high-point, how can B2B marketers ensure that their place within the LinkedIn universe is accurately represented — both professionally and personally?

The many features of LinkedIn member profiles have evolved and greatly expanded over the years, and more B2B marketers than you would expect are missing out on exposure opportunities that are only a click away.

Let’s take a look at 15+ optimizations that will take your LinkedIn profile to the next level, with a focus on the human elements that will help you sparkle on the platform.


15+ Top Tips For B2B Marketers To Optimize & Humanize LinkedIn Profiles

B2B Twitter Alternatives: Mastodon, Post & Others Offer New Marketing Opportunities

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Jan 2nd, 2023
B2B Marketing, Social Media

5 plus top B2B marketing Twitter alternative social media platforms woman with laptop image
Where are B2B marketers turning to fill the void an increasing number of brands are facing having paused or left the Twitter platform?

Increasing numbers of brands and users have turned away from Twitter since its recent ownership change and subsequent top-down shifts in some of the platform’s fundamental policies.

Mainstay B2B brands have joined their B2C counterparts in either taking a temporary break from publishing and advertising on Twitter, or in some cases pulling the plug entirely.

This has led B2B marketers into an unusual period in the history of social media — one perhaps not seen since Google’s Plus platform shuttered its doors in April, 2019.


B2B Twitter Alternatives: Mastodon, Post & Others Offer New Marketing Opportunities

Elevate B2B Social: Optimize Your 2023 Social Media Marketing With Our Top 10 Posts

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Dec 12th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Social Media

Elevate with our top 10 B2B social media posts woman at laptop image

In 2022 B2B marketers have continued to find creative new uses of social media marketing as the marketing world experienced another year exploring uncharted territory. We’ve been fortunate to feature many fine articles on our blog over the year that explore how B2B marketers are making the most of social media marketing to elevate and achieve new levels of success.

We’re also fortunate to have a wealth of talented B2B marketing professionals contributing to and reading the TopRank Marketing blog — which will celebrate its 20th year in 2023.

The expertise our team has acquired in helping some of the top brands in the world including Adobe, 3M, SAP, LinkedIn, and Oracle plan, implement and measure a wide range of marketing programs has often made it here to our marketing blog. To help our B2B blog community grow its social media marketing knowledge, we’re thrilled to once again offer up our annual list of the most popular social media marketing posts of the year.


Elevate B2B Social: Optimize Your 2023 Social Media Marketing With Our Top 10 Posts

Listen Up: How B2B Marketers Are Expanding Social Listening Offline & Beyond

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Oct 5th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Social Media Smarts

Expanding B2B social listening strategies businesswoman with hand to ear image

How can B2B marketers amp up their social media listening strategy and put it to use in other areas to become better all-around listeners?

Social listening is a vital aspect of modern B2B marketing, providing valuable insight into current and potential future customers, yet many marketers treat it almost as an afterthought.

Fundamental listening skills outside of the social realm are also often given only lip service, leaving B2B marketers plenty of room to purposely hone a winning listening strategy.

Whether online or in person, taking the time to build better listening habits can provide a sizable return on investment, so let’s take a look at five ways to expand your B2B listening ROI.


Listen Up: How B2B Marketers Are Expanding Social Listening Offline & Beyond

Semrush on How to Create B2B Content for Generation Z

Lennox Powell Semrush

While many B2B marketers are focused on Boomer and Millennial age senior marketing executives, what are B2B brands doing to connect with the next Generation of buyers? You know, those junior marketing pros born after 1997 aka Gen Z? Content Director at Semrush, @LenoxPowell, shared useful insights about connecting this up and coming group of customers that includes buyers of B2B products and services.

First, you should know that GenZ is a large cohort – 32% of the global population, with massive spending power.

Second, you should know that GenZ are definitely not Millennials 2.0.

While Millennials are aspirational, idealistic and adapted to tech, their brand expectations are about storytelling On the other hand, Gen Z are authentic, pragmatic, and visual first about technology with brand expectations are about storyliving.


Semrush on How to Create B2B Content for Generation Z

Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Elevating With LinkedIn Live

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Sep 21st, 2022
B2B Marketing, LinkedIn, Video

5 B2B brands elevating with LinkedIn Live woman at mic image
B2B brands have increasingly turned to LinkedIn*’s live-streaming offering LinkedIn Live to elevate their messaging in creative new ways. Brands using LinkedIn Live are increasing engagement from virtually all public-facing sides of their organization, and pulling their professional communities closer than ever in real time using live-streaming.

The past year has been the first that LinkedIn has offered LinkedIn Live Events, a combination of LinkedIn Live and the professional platform’s other event features, and B2B brands have increasingly found value in the combined one-two punch, as we’ll explore.

The updated LinkedIn Live Events experience has allowed brands to create more robust virtual events, which have become de rigueur, must-have offerings for many brands since the pandemic began.


Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Elevating With LinkedIn Live

Instagram’s Enhanced Creator Tags: Implications for B2B Influencer Marketing

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Jun 22nd, 2022
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Social Media

Enhanced Instagram creator tags for B2B marketers group of professionals image

How can B2B marketers make their content stand out and highlight the talented subject matter experts, creators, and influencers they partner with?

Earlier this year Instagram rolled out new enhanced tagging features that allow digital marketers to do a much better job of indicating and crediting the various influencers and creators involved in the creation of content shared on the platform.

Instagram’s addition of enhanced tagging — which is also available for use in video Reels — offers significant new exposure opportunities for B2B content that has been created by multiple professionals, often precisely the type of content that is either made or co-created by industry influencers.

Let’s take a look at some of the advantages provided by Instagram’s enhanced creator tags, and how B2B marketers can best put them to use.


Instagram’s Enhanced Creator Tags: Implications for B2B Influencer Marketing

Enduring Engagement: 5 Easy Ways To Build New B2B Marketing Connections & Make Them Last

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Apr 27th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Social Networking

How to grow a B2B professional network connections group image

With distrust of brands and advertising at all time highs, human to human connections and networks of people are more important than ever for B2B marketers. Finding the time to network is also a challenge as expectations of marketers to do more with less persists amongst the ongoing pandemic and rising inflation. So how can marketers create new professional connections that endure, and strengthen their existing business relationships?

With ostensibly more ways than ever to find new connections both online and off, the task can seem overwhelming.

Luckily, by making clear goals and putting a strategy in place to achieve them, marketers can start truly tapping into the power of building new connections and making them — along with existing ones — stand the test of time.


Enduring Engagement: 5 Easy Ways To Build New B2B Marketing Connections & Make Them Last

Virtual Vision: 5 New LinkedIn Features & How B2B Marketers Can Use Them To Succeed

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Mar 30th, 2022
B2B Marketing, LinkedIn

5 new LinkedIn features for B2B marketers closeup image of eyes.

What are the newest features on LinkedIn*, and how can B2B marketers best use them to attract, engage, and convert business professionals?

As the world’s leading business social platform, Microsoft’s LinkedIn has released a surprising array of innovative new ways for B2B marketers and brands to build new connections and forge even stronger existing relationships.

LinkedIn has undoubtedly witnessed numerous social platforms adding elements to attract B2B marketers, yet it remains the dominant player in the massive business sector. An important factor in LinkedIn’s continuing dominance and growth has been its steadfast determination to innovate with an abundance of new features.

75 percent of enterprise content marketers have said that LinkedIn produced the best results among social media platforms over the past year, followed by Facebook with 42 percent and Instagram with 32 percent.


Virtual Vision: 5 New LinkedIn Features & How B2B Marketers Can Use Them To Succeed

Social Significance: Learn From Our Top 10 Social Media Marketing Posts

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Dec 8th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Social Media

Two businesswomen work together in modern office on new project image.

In 2021 B2B marketers have continued to find creative new uses of social media marketing as the marketing world has continued another year exploring uncharted territory. We’ve been fortunate to feature many excellent articles on our blog over the year that explore how B2B marketers are utilizing social media marketing to build new levels of success.

We’re fortunate to have a wealth of talented B2B marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank Marketing blog — which will celebrate its 19th year in 2022.

The expertise our team has acquired in helping some of the top brands in the world including Adobe, 3M, SAP, LinkedIn, and Oracle plan, implement and measure a wide range of marketing programs has often made it here to our marketing blog. To help our blog community grow its social media marketing knowledge, we’re thrilled to offer our annual list of the most popular social media marketing posts of 2021.


Social Significance: Learn From Our Top 10 Social Media Marketing Posts

5 Fresh Features: What LinkedIn’s New Learning Hub, Ratings & Reviews, Live Events & Page Article Updates Mean for B2B Marketers

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Sep 22nd, 2021
B2B Marketing, LinkedIn

Group of B2B marketers around a table planning uses for new LinkedIn features image.

What do B2B marketers need to know about LinkedIn’s* new full-length articles, profile ratings and reviews, Live Events, Learning Hub skill-building platform, and updated accessibility features?

The world’s largest professional social media platform — with more than 774 million users — has rolled out an impressive assortment of new features throughout 2021, including five recent additions that bring a goldmine of new opportunities for B2B marketers.

For the first time, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn saw annual revenue topping the $10 billion mark, Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft announced in July, with quarterly revenue up 46 percent.

This growth has been accompanied by a number of powerful and fascinating new feature roll-outs that are poised to make a change in how B2B marketers utilize LinkedIn.


5 Fresh Features: What LinkedIn’s New Learning Hub, Ratings & Reviews, Live Events & Page Article Updates Mean for B2B Marketers