Is Twitter a Good Platform for B2B Sales in 2021?

Social media seems to be growing more popular by the day. That is pretty fantastic when it comes to the business opportunities that open themselves up. Twitter happens to be one of the main active pillars of the who’s who in online media. We will tell you whether it is a good platform for doing B2B business, and how to maximize its potential

Nowadays, there is an abundance of opportunities to do B2B marketing online. Social media channels are the hippest thing on the block. While LinkedIn may be a professional, traditional way to approach things, the younger generations are leaning toward trendier platforms. Amongst book of ra and Instagram, Twitter is one of our favorite websites for a variety of reasons. It is entertaining, embraces snack-sized posts, and boasts a constant flow of action to get involved in. Essentially, it can act as your news channel, a way to socialize, and it can double as a search engine. You will find that there is lots of data to unravel once you discover the right veins of Twitter content. At over 500 million Tweets that get sent out daily, and 330+ million monthly active users, the Twitter analytics numbers speak for themselves – Twitter is not something to ignore as a business owner. However, what about Twitter and marketing? Is it any use for B2B sales? 

 Twitter and B2B Sales – Why are Some Businesses Hesitant to Embrace the Platform?

In B2B marketing, social media is the new way to operate. The majority of all marketers, 84% to be precise, use social media for business purposes. For B2B operations, LinkedIn has been the gold standard for a good while now. The platform has been tailored for it with that in mind, as it fosters professional business relationships and the sharing of insider data relevant to sales and marketing. At around 95%, it is clear that LinkedIn is statistically the most used social media platform by B2B marketers, but the times are changing, new tendencies emerge. It is imperative to understand that Twitter is not far behind when we look at the numbers. 82% of all B2B marketers used it for organic content marketing last year, according to The Content Marketing Institute. The old-timer notion that Twitter is not popular for B2B marketing is wholly misguided by outdated concepts. If anything, Twitter does not get the credit that it deserves. So what makes Twitter and business operations such a great combo? 

 Twitter has over 353 million people that count as their advertising audience. 206 million are active daily users, and 187 million of those are monetizable. That is a huge amount of people for targeting purposes. All that indicates a great starting position for any business. What is more interesting, is that 53% of all Twitter users are considered as likely to be the first to buy new products. In other words, they are keen to embrace innovations. Considering this statistic makes Twitter a very fertile ground for marketing, especially if your methods are original. Let’s take a look at how you can use that to your advantage.

Twitter as a B2B Marketing Tool – It’s Practical Uses to Increase Your Sales

 Finding Your Audience

We already covered that Twitter has an abundance of users. Naturally, this means you will find all kinds of people amongst the many Twitter profiles. You can use the search function to identify potential clients in a straightforward fashion. A simple search for “manufacturing manager” will give you heaps of results, featuring people who professionally occupy a management position at a manufacturing company. Depending on your particular business type, search for relevant keywords that would describe your target audience. You might be surprised at how many results you get. Once you have your leads, you can go ahead and start making your pitch.

Promoting Your Brand

When it comes to establishing a solid Twitter marketing plan, creating brand awareness should be on top of your list. By promoting your content on the platform, you can work to promote your brand exceptionally well. Your official Twitter account activity can also become an effective way to drive more traffic to your website. If people enjoy your web page, they will be mere steps away from becoming customers. Being active and engaging on Twitter can establish your brand’s trustworthiness too. A smart way to become a leading force in your field is to share helpful tips in your Twitter feed relevant to your industry. By doing this diligently you could become a primary source people turn to when they have product questions. Once you establish that level of trust, you will become rooted in the minds of people that matter. An excellent reputation can do wonders when it comes to boosting your B2B sales. Remember that using hashtags is an important point to implement when sharing your tweets. It will allow for more organic traffic to find your profile. RiteTag is a helpful website to determine which hashtags will work best for your purposes. 

 Data Through Interaction

Twitter is not intended to be a one-way street. Interaction is at the heart of the social platform. You can maximize this to your advantage while also helping your customers. B2B companies are known to create customer service profiles in order to help clients out with specific issues they are facing. Such profiles can also be a means to monitor any mentions of the company, then engage accordingly. As a customer service option, Twitter is immediate and makes consumers feel cared for. Fast replies are personable and gratifying, instead of having to wait on the phone line to get answers. Monitoring feeds on what people think of your company, your competitors, and industry trends can also be incredibly useful for your marketing research. Automation tools such as HubSpot can be very useful to help you keep a good overview of any pertinent Twitter data. 

 Keeping an Eye on the Competition

Knowing what problems your competition is having can work to your advantage. If you improve upon the issues that customers are dissatisfied with when working with a competing company, chances are that you will win them over. How do you do that? Simply keep an eye out on conversations going on on Twitter. You can check what people are saying about your competitors, watch their activity, and even see how fast or slow they are growing an audience. Viewing Twitter feeds surely is not insidious, as it is public information. However, such insights can give you a good angle on things, especially the unfiltered aspect of how consumers feel. Be sure to keep an eye out on metrics such as impressions, follower growth, comments, relevant hashtags of your competitors, and their Twitter activity. 

 Building a Community

Building an online community around your B2B business is becoming a hugely popular Twitter marketing strategy. That could be deduced anecdotally, but the statistics are also pointing towards this emerging trend. It is known that 32% of B2B marketers are working in organizations that have established online communities. 27% have it in their plans to pursue this marketing strategy during the next year. This shows that brands on social media no longer want to operate in a manner that addresses the masses from a pedestal. Today’s marketing shows that a one-to-one approach is becoming increasingly popular. Such a method of community building includes using direct messages and comments to your advantage. Twitter has a new feature that is named “Communities”. It allows a brand to build exactly that – a community around your business. You can collect like-minded individuals and shape conversation starters for them. It looks like this may become a big thing in the B2B marketing world over the coming years. You should definitely try to embrace this trend and see how it works for your company. After all, it does not cost anything to try it, apart from allocated human resources, but it could bring you huge brand awareness and trust-related benefits over the long term.

 Conclusion 

Hopefully, this overview allowed you to gain new insight into how Twitter can be a beneficial avenue for your B2B venture. All in all, it must be said that Twitter’s influence in today’s marketing world is undeniable. If you use the platform right, there is a lot to win in terms of branding, building your company’s status, lead generation, and more. If you are not yet on the platform, take this as a prompting to create your account and start tweeting. It is simple, effective, and fun, that is why so many people love it. Chances are that your business will too. What do you think of Twitter for doing business? Is it effective for you? Please leave your comments in the section below!

Author’s bio:

Arthur is a digital marketing specialist and business blogger. He develops interesting startups through various social media and shares his experience with clients to better promote their business. In his spare time, Arthur studies Japanese and writes articles on digital transformation trends.