Is Facebook dead? Musings on the evolving social media landscape for B2B brands

The digital landscape as a whole — and social media in particular — continues to change at an alarming rate. Is your B2B brand’s marketing strategy changing with it? To stay relevant, you need to invest in a variety of social media tactics and platforms.

The good news? The payoff is worth your hard work keeping up with the modern-day Joneses. 

If you manage to stay on top of what’s hot in social media marketing, your B2B company can capitalize on new ways to reach your target audience and build relationships with your customers. You might even reach potential customers in unexpected ways on unexpected platforms. 

Let’s talk about the right balance of new and old social media marketing strategies for B2B brands.

Traditional vs. Nontraditional Social Media Explained 

In the early days of the internet, it was simple to identify traditional and nontraditional forms of media. Anything that was not digital fell into the traditional category. Over time, email and display ads became traditional, too. They’re used extensively and have been around for a long time. Today, even certain social media platforms are traditional for those same reasons. 

Facebook is the perfect example of a digital-yet-traditional social media platform. It’s for boomers, as the kids say. Actually, you might even say that. 

Understanding traditional vs. nontraditional social media is about more than categorizing platforms as “old” or “new.” It also involves categorizing certain social media marketing methods as traditional. 

For example, buying a typical ad on Facebook or Instagram is very much traditional in 2022. It’s really no different than purchasing an ad in a newspaper (yes, print media still exists). You create an ad, buy media, and place that ad where it will reach your target audience. See how old school that is — even if it is on Facebook? 

Importantly, traditional paid ads like this also yield nearly instant traffic to your B2B brand’s website and measurable results

Nontraditional social media marketing, on the other hand, is more akin to branding. You can’t necessarily measure how many people visit your B2B brand because of a TikTok video or an influencer marketing campaign. Or any organic social media post, for that matter. But it does solidify and build up your B2B company’s image — your brand — in customers’ minds. 

Unsurprisingly, we see the most nontraditional social media marketing on TikTok and Instagram’s Stories and Reels — the places where users do not welcome them. Younger generations and TikTok audiences in particular have no patience for what they see as talking heads, boring commercials. 

Traditional Social Media Is Not Past its Expiration Date

The word “traditional” often gets a bad rap because it’s associated with the word “old.” But we’re certainly not ready to retire traditional social media marketing tactics. By all means, keep your Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other paid ads going

Traditional social media methods are still highly effective. As we said, they drive immediate traffic to both your website and dealerships. Paid ads also spread the word about seasonal, monthly, weekly, and even daily promotions and specials — all things your devoted followers and new diners alike want to know about. 

Perhaps the most compelling reason to continue leveraging traditional social media marketing is because it’s measurable. You can track a person’s path from clicking your Facebook ad to purchasing equipment. You get tons of powerful information to optimize your efforts

Sprinkle Nontraditional Social Media into the Mix

Okay, so you’re keeping your traditional social media tactics intact. That doesn’t excuse you from participating in nontraditional social media. 

It’s tempting to spend your entire budget on measurable, traditional social media so you can track every dollar. But this kind of constant promotion gradually tears down and cheapens your brand in consumers’ eyes. Constant discounts in particular make your product seem like a commodity. 

Like we said, nontraditional social media methods are similar to branding in that they build your B2B brand up. Creating a video with a trending TikTok or Reels song, for example, makes your B2B brand relatable, memorable, and timely — regardless of the cost of your product. 

You should also care about giving nontraditional social media a go because it’s where your customers are spending their time. If you want your B2B brand to stay relevant, you have to give newer social media platforms and corresponding marketing methods (like influencer marketing) a fair shot. 

The Moral of the Traditional vs. Nontraditional Social Media Story

To find social media success for your B2B brand, you need a balance of traditional and nontraditional social media marketing strategies. Only a healthy serving of both will ensure your website and foot traffic remain steady. It can be tough to know which social media channels are best for your B2B brand. And tougher still to select the marketing methods to use on each. If you need a hand crafting your B2B brand’s social media recipe, reach out to us.

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