A lot of people know businesses but not many know the differences. The discussion about the difference in strategy between a B2B company and a B2C company has long been talked about for so many years. As a B2B company’s digital marketer, I have always been asked what’s the difference between B2B and B2C company in terms of marketing strategy, especially social media marketing strategy. Now, I will provide that answer in this article. Keep reading to find out!

Before we dive into the explanation about the major difference between B2B and B2C social marketing strategy, let’s first acknowledge this one major fact about B2B and what it has in common with B2C; the fact that they also provide services or products to their consumers. In this case, businesses are consumers as well. B2B marketers may be connecting with people at a business, but those people are also considered as consumers, who get benefits from the products or services they are buying from that B2B company they are having a deal with. With that in mind, we can conclude that B2B and B2C company have the same goal; to provide services and products to their consumers.

Now, we also know both use social media for engagement. After all, interacting with people, especially with customers is one of the right marketing strategies in order to grow your business. However, from this, we can find a major difference between B2B and B2C marketing strategies. Actually, this is where it comes into play; building engaging and interactive relationships with consumers. While one of the requirements a business has is to provide relevant and good quality content to be shared with their audience on social media, B2B marketing has to deliver the right message that is more into complex buyer journey but targeting the smaller scope of audience. Therefore, the marketing strategy for B2B companies often lies in its influential messages conveyed in the content in order to get their audience more convinced and more interested in what has been offered. If you own a B2B company, trying to make sense in your content, you might be wondering about this question; how are they convinced, actually? They are convinced by how having a deal with you will benefit their business. For that reason, it is important for B2B marketers to think through their efforts in making the right content.

B2C marketers, on the other hand, may build similar audience personas, but they spread wider in terms of networking than B2B does. They are basically informing their audience about their products or services, but it is most likely that the majority of their consumers already know the products. For that reason, using social media for B2C companies is more like using a platform to communicate with consumers directly to listen to their complaints and gather their opinions.

With that in mind, B2B and B2C companies often have different strategies in terms of social media platforms. B2B companies use LinkedIn more often than any other social media platform because LinkedIn is a platform full of professionals from different kinds of businesses. You can share your thoughts and make your voice heard there. The other platform that is suitable for B2B companies is Facebook. It is undoubtedly true that Facebook is the largest social media platform. However, when it comes to professionalism, LinkedIn is a better place for B2B companies.

On the other hand, B2C approach is more direct because they are dealing with direct customers and therefore need to reach wider audience with wider networking. When you are selling your products directly to your customers as a B2C marketer or B2C company owner, you are not explaining to them about the opportunity for them to grow their business or what benefits they can get by having a deal with you, like B2B marketers would do. Rather, you are explaining about your products and the benefits those products will give to your potential buyer if they buy your products. Therefore, the right social media platforms for you are those that are focusing on visual representations like pictures or photos, something like Instagram or Facebook. For that reason, instead of using LinkedIn, you can express more about your B2C company and give clear explanation about your products through Instagram or Facebook to show the representation of your products and a clear explanation about their benefits.

That’s the major difference between B2B and B2C social media marketing strategies. Just remember that B2B marketing strategy often lies in its content delivery – try to be more convincing and persuading when you are offering a deal with your potential customers. If you are in the B2C field, remember that you should use direct approach to attract potential customers – try to represent the best product image and description and make your potential customers certain about whether or not they should buy your products or services.  With that in mind, you can create a well-planned social media marketing strategy regardless of which company you belong in.