B2B social media marketing

B2B social media marketing is how a company that sells to other businesses shows up on LinkedIn and the few other networks its buyers use: a company page that says plainly what you do and for whom, posts your leaders and experts publish under their own names, coverage of the trade shows you attend, hiring posts that show what the company is like, and a way to pass interest from target companies to your sales team. It is for founders, marketing managers and sales leaders who want social activity that supports real deals rather than a feed of announcements nobody reads. Canada Create is a Toronto agency serving businesses across Canada, and this page explains what we plan, write and run for B2B companies on social media.

Contents

• How business buyers use LinkedIn
• A company page that explains what you do
• Posts for leaders and subject experts
• Themes drawn from what buyers ask sales
• Document posts, short video and photos
• Trade shows, conferences and events
• Hiring posts and employees who share by choice
• Passing engagement to sales
• A posting rhythm your team can keep
• Rules to plan for on social
• How we work on B2B social
• What B2B social media costs
• How to choose a B2B social partner
• Your next step

How business buyers use LinkedIn

People rarely open LinkedIn to buy something. They open it to check who a supplier is, to see whether a vendor’s people seem to know their field, to look up the salesperson who just emailed them, or to read what a peer in their trade thinks about a problem they share. A buyer weighing a new freight partner, a cybersecurity provider or a packaging supplier will often visit the company page and the profiles of the people they would deal with before replying to anyone.

Research without raising a hand

Much of a B2B evaluation happens before the buyer contacts you. A plant manager might follow your company page for months, read a few posts from your head of engineering and only reach out when a budget opens. Social media is where that quiet research happens, so the question for your company is simple: when a serious buyer looks, what do they find?

Where the other networks fit

LinkedIn is the main network for many B2B companies because job titles and employers are visible there. Other platforms earn a place only where your buyers actually are. YouTube suits product demonstrations and installation walkthroughs that buyers search for. Instagram and Facebook can matter for trades where owners run small operations and scroll in the evening, such as contractors buying from a building supply wholesaler. We recommend a second network only when there is a clear reason.

A company page that explains what you do

Many B2B company pages say something like “innovative solutions for the modern enterprise” and leave visitors guessing. A buyer should understand within a few seconds what you sell, which kinds of companies you serve and what to do next.

The words at the top

The tagline, the overview section and the button deserve the most care. “Refrigerated trucking for food distributors in Ontario and Quebec” tells a buyer more than any slogan. We rewrite the overview in plain language, name the trades you serve, and point the button to a page that suits a visiting buyer, such as a contact page or a short overview of your offer.

Visuals and proof

The cover image, the logo and the first few posts on the page are what a visitor sees first. We plan these together so the page looks maintained and current, with real photos of your people, facilities or products where you have them, and graphics that match your brand.

Showing who works there

Buyers click through to the people. Encouraging employees to list the company correctly on their own profiles links them to the page and makes the company look like what it is: a group of real people with real experience. We never ask anyone to change their own profile; we offer guidance they can use if they wish.

Posts for leaders and subject experts

A purchasing manager deciding between two suppliers of hydraulic fittings is more likely to remember the sales engineer who explained a seal failure clearly than a corporate post about a new office. Personal profiles tend to get more attention in the feed than company pages, so a sensible B2B program puts a handful of named leaders and experts at its centre.

Ghostwriting that stays in their voice

We interview each leader briefly, capture how they explain things and what they believe about their field, and draft posts in their words. A founder of a commercial roofing company might talk about why most leaks start at flashing details; a head of finance at a payroll firm might explain what controllers ask during a year end switch. Every draft is approved by the person whose name is on it before anything is posted, and they can always change or reject it.

Choosing who posts

Not everyone needs to post. A good starting group is often the founder or president, one technical expert and one person close to customers, such as a head of operations or a senior account manager. Each brings different questions and a different audience.

Comments and replies

Posting is half the job. A leader who replies thoughtfully to comments and leaves useful comments on posts by buyers and peers in their trade builds far more presence than one who posts and disappears. We can suggest where to comment and draft replies for approval, but the conversations belong to the leader.

Themes drawn from what buyers ask sales

The richest source of B2B post ideas sits inside your own company: the questions prospects ask on calls, the objections that slow deals and the misconceptions your team corrects every week.

Collecting questions

We ask your sellers and customer service staff what they hear most. A commercial insurance broker might hear “why did our premium change when we had no claims?”; an industrial automation firm might hear “can this work with our older equipment?” Each repeated question can become a post, a short series or a document post that answers it properly.

A few steady themes

We group ideas into a small set of themes, for example practical answers, behind the scenes at the plant or office, people and hiring, events, and the occasional company milestone. Having themes keeps posts varied without starting from a blank page every week, and it keeps the feed from becoming a stream of announcements only your staff care about.

Longer material cut into posts

Guides, whitepapers and customer stories can each feed several posts. Planning that longer material for business buyers is the subject of the separate B2B content marketing page; on social, we take what exists and shape it for the feed.

Document posts, short video and photos

Different post types suit different messages, and B2B buyers respond to material that teaches them something or shows them something real.

Document posts

LinkedIn lets you upload a document that readers swipe through page by page. These suit step by step explanations, checklists and short guides, such as “five things to check before signing a warehouse lease”. We write and design each page so it works on a phone.

Short video

Short clips of a machine running, a technician explaining a fix or a leader answering one question on camera often say more than text. They do not need a studio. When higher production matters, such as a product launch or a facility tour, our video production team can film it.

Photos of real work

Real photos of your team, your shop floor, your installations or your trade show booth build more trust than stock images. For planned shoots, our photography service covers people, products and facilities. Everyone who appears needs to agree to be shown.

Trade shows, conferences and events

For many B2B companies, trade shows and conferences are the busiest selling moments of the year, and social media extends their reach before, during and after.

Before the event

Posts announcing your booth number, the people attending and what visitors can see or ask about help buyers plan their time. Leaders can post about the sessions they will attend or speak at, which gives contacts a reason to meet.

During and after

Short posts from the floor, photos of the booth and a quick video of a demonstration show the company in action. After the event, a summary of what your team heard and learned, written by a leader, keeps the conversation going with the people who stopped by. Hosting your own event, such as a customer session or a plant open house, can also be set up as a LinkedIn event that people can register for.

Hiring posts and employees who share by choice

Hiring posts are often the most viewed content on a B2B company page, and they quietly tell buyers a lot about the company.

Hiring posts that show the company

A job post that shows the team, the work and the standards you hold tells a buyer that you invest in people. “We are hiring a second field technician for our Ottawa service area” shows growth and coverage at the same time. We write hiring posts that are accurate about the role and that show the company without overselling it.

Employees who share by choice

Employees resharing company posts can widen your reach, but only when they want to. We prepare posts that are worth sharing and simple for staff to adapt, and we never set quotas or tie sharing to performance. Where it is not obvious that a person works for the company, they should make the connection clear when they post about it.

Passing engagement to sales

Social activity matters to a B2B owner when it helps conversations with the right companies. That means noticing when people from target accounts engage and making sure your sellers know.

Watching target companies

When a director at a company on your target list comments on a leader’s post or follows your page, that is useful context for a seller. Page analytics also show the job functions and company sizes of followers and visitors in general terms. We review engagement against your list of target companies and note what matters,.

Into the CRM

Notable engagement can be recorded on the right contact or company record in CS+ and your CRM, so a seller planning a call can see that the prospect’s operations lead read last week’s post about cold storage. The seller decides what to do with it.

Where paid campaigns and other pages fit

Paid LinkedIn campaigns can put posts in front of specific job titles or a list of companies; when they make sense, they are set up through our social media advertising service, with spend paid to the platform. A program aimed at a named list of companies is described on our account based marketing page, and brands that sell through dealers can find reseller content on the wholesale marketing page. For consumer brands and general businesses, see social media management, our social media strategy service and social content creation. Planned email to the same business contacts is covered on the B2B email marketing page. All of this sits within our B2B marketing services.

A posting rhythm your team can keep

A B2B program that starts with daily posts and stops after a month looks worse than one that posts steadily at a calmer pace. The right rhythm is one your leaders can approve without it becoming a chore.

Planning around your calendar

We build a monthly calendar around your real year: trade shows, product releases, hiring periods, fiscal year ends when buyers plan budgets, and quiet periods in your trade. A building products supplier might plan more around spring construction season, while a firm selling to accounting teams might stay lighter during tax season when buyers are swamped.

When to slow down

Some weeks call for fewer posts: a plant shutdown, a sensitive customer issue, a merger announcement your lawyers are handling. A good plan has room to pause the company page without the program falling apart, and leaders can skip a week whenever their calendar demands it. Quality and timing matter more to a careful buyer than an unbroken streak.

Approvals that do not stall

Each leader receives their drafts together, with enough lead time to read and approve them in one sitting. Posts for the company page go through one named approver. Keeping approvals simple is often what keeps a program alive.

Rules to plan for on social

• Truthful claims. The Competition Act applies to posts as much as to brochures: claims about performance, comparisons and results must be accurate and supportable.
• Paid partnerships. When a partner, influencer or industry voice is paid or receives something to post about you, the connection needs clear disclosure, in line with Ad Standards guidance.
• Employees. Staff posting about their employer should make the connection clear where it is not obvious.
• Contests. Giveaways need clear written rules, and prizes in Canada generally call for a skill testing question.
• Music and images. Music in business videos needs a commercial licence, and people in photos and video need to agree to appear.
• Contact data. Commercial email and texts to contacts met on social fall under CASL (consent or a documented business relationship, sender identification, unsubscribe). PIPEDA applies to the personal information you record, and sensitive personal details have no place in analytics or ad audiences.

This is a marketing observation, not legal advice. No social program can promise pipeline, meetings or revenue, and we do not.

How we work on B2B social

1. Free review. We look at your company page, the profiles of the leaders who might post and what your competitors’ pages look like to a buyer.
2. Written plan and proposal. You receive a plan covering the company page, who posts, themes, event coverage and how engagement reaches sales, with fees quoted in writing.
3. Interviews, drafts and posting. Short interviews with each leader, monthly drafts for approval, page updates and scheduled posts.
4. Monthly reporting. Posts published, engagement from target companies, follower trends and what sales heard, with suggestions for the next month.

Your company page and every account stay in your company’s name, with your staff as administrators. Leaders keep full control of their own profiles.

What B2B social media costs

B2B social is quoted in writing after the free review, usually as a monthly plan. What drives the price:

• How many leaders and experts post under their own names, and how often.
• How technical your subject is and how much interview time each leader needs.
• Document posts and graphics, which take design time.
• Video and photography, quoted with the shoot.
• The number of trade shows and events you want covered.
• Whether engagement from target companies is reviewed and recorded in your CRM.
• English and French posts, when your buyers work in both languages.

Any paid LinkedIn budget is paid directly to the platform and shown separately from our fees.

How to choose a B2B social partner

• Who owns the accounts? The answer should be you: the company page, the ad account and every file. Leaders keep their own profiles.
• How do you capture our leaders’ voice? Look for interviews and approval of every post, not generic drafts.
• How do you connect social to sales? Ask how engagement from target companies reaches your sellers.
• Will you ask staff to post? The answer should be only by choice.
• What does a month look like? Ask to see a sample calendar and approval process.
• What will you promise? If the answer includes a number of meetings or leads, keep looking.

You can read more about Canada Create before we talk.

Your next step

Book a free B2B social review. Send us your LinkedIn company page, the names of one or two leaders who might post, and the trade shows on your calendar this year. We will tell you what a visiting buyer sees today, what we would change on the page first and what a steady posting plan could look like, with fees quoted in writing.

Marketing managers who want a quick conversation first can phone (416) 273-9030 at our Toronto office; founders travelling between trade shows can use +1 (800) 808-9235, the 24/7 toll-free line. Or tell us about your company page and target accounts in writing. Either way, we reply within one business day, and the door is open at 126 Willowdale Avenue, Suite 3, Toronto.