B2B entrepreneurs are more and more turning to social media to satisfy prospects the place they’re, taking classes from their B2C friends about how finest to attach.
Advertising Week’s 2025 State of B2B Advertising survey discovered entrepreneurs are utilizing social media extra incessantly and in several methods.
Of the 450 entrepreneurs surveyed, 59.1% are investing in social campaigns as a part of their model advertising and marketing. Some 58.7% of SMEs (250 workers and beneath) and 58.8% of huge organisations are utilizing social as a significant a part of their model campaigns.
When requested how their strategy to steer era was altering, 48.9% reported a much bigger deal with social media (Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok). This rose to 55.3% of SMEs and stood at 48.3% for these in massive corporations.
As a part of this shift, B2B entrepreneurs are adapting the best way they strategy content material, bringing leisure, character and interactivity to their followers’ feeds.
Vice-president of selling at life sciences firm Cytiva, Conor McKechnie, says the enterprise has been on a journey with social media. There was a shift from “newswire to actual storytelling”, which is targeted on assembly the shopper the place they’re on the journey. Social is now “a part of the total funnel” and an area for buyer success tales to be shared.
The crew has diminished link-outs and “overt promotions” since its rebrand from GE Healthcare in April 2020, which McKechnie marks because the time when the corporate actually needed to lean into digital and social because of the pandemic.
This strategy of “simplifying, humanising and unifying” has pushed a 32% engagement uplift and 559% follower development to Cytivas’s company LinkedIn web page from January to September 2025, versus the identical interval final 12 months.
It must be about leisure reasonably than gross sales data. And that’s the bit B2B manufacturers have gotten flawed.
Dan Roche, Workbooks
The State of B2B Advertising knowledge reveals 45.1% of manufacturers are utilizing workers as influencers to boost consciousness.
At Cytiva, worker advocacy – notably amongst its gross sales groups – drives 3 times extra attain and double the clicking via charges in comparison with firm posts. McKechnie describes worker advocacy as a “stable channel for buyer engagement”, which drives “funnel additions”.
McKechnie says the pandemic spurred the corporate to embrace worker influencers.
“Within the first two or three months of Cytiva being a factor, I’d say most of our outward communication when it comes to quantity and share of voice was all pushed by our associates utilizing the content material that we had been offering from the advertising and marketing crew within the advocacy plan,” he explains.
PwC is one other international firm utilizing social media throughout its markets.
“There’s a lot that manufacturers can do on social media that’s essential at the moment, notably round constructing belief, ” says head of marketing campaign administration, Nic McHugh.
She claims the social crew has constructed up belief with management who perceive the advantages of social. The enterprise equally has a creator community, made up of individuals throughout the agency telling tales of the model. This community has proved notably helpful in sharing the corporate’s annual report, which launched final month.
McHugh says the worker creators assist to make “fairly heavy matters” comparable to pension transformation extra approachable, and having them share content material is a “differentiator” for the model.
PwC helps its workers in rising their very own private manufacturers, with McHugh claiming the agency has “unimaginable individuals doing improbable work” and the thought is to have them out available in the market telling their story.
“Advocacy for us is a non-negotiable. It’ll be one thing that we are going to proceed to put money into,” she provides.
Humanising the model
Though LinkedIn could have had a notion of being solely company, B2B corporations of all sizes are bringing humour and a lighthearted strategy to the platform. One such agency is CRM platform Workbooks, which has landed on an strategy of being disruptive, irreverent and enjoyable.
CMO Dan Roche says sustaining a presence on all platforms was “an excessive amount of”, so the crew has “zeroed in on LinkedIn” to speak to prospects and prospects in a barely totally different approach.
“B2B is getting higher, but it surely’s nonetheless a sea of blandness. Loads of B2B manufacturers use LinkedIn or social media as an promoting broadcast channel and what we’re attempting to do is get individuals’s consideration, and also you don’t get consideration by simply attempting to promote your services or products,” says Roche.
Workbooks’ LinkedIn posts typically embrace humorous, playful and fascinating gifs, which he says has been influenced barely by client manufacturers comparable to Monzo, noting there’s a “human approach” of standing out which finds a steadiness between the product and humour. This strategy is one thing the algorithm rewards.
For me, it says the largest studying is that in B2B, you may even have enjoyable and be artistic.
Conor McKechnie, Cytiva
“By marrying what we really need to say, which is our services or products message, with one thing that’s a bit irreverent, enjoyable and humorous, that received us a greater degree of engagement,” says Roche.
Having a “humorous” stance is the place he sees the way forward for B2B social going, with the message and story extra essential than the precise channel.
“Social media, it must be about leisure reasonably than gross sales data. And that’s the bit that B2B manufacturers have gotten flawed. They’ve tried to make use of it as an promoting channel when it must be an leisure channel, inside cause,” Roche provides.
For Cytiva, there should be “no disconnect” between model voice and content material throughout its social channels, and this must also hyperlink to the web site. LinkedIn is its major channel within the US and EMEA, with different channels comparable to WeChat utilized in China and KakaoTalk utilized in Korea. Instagram can be a channel to “humanise” the model and YouTube is seen as an “evergreen video hub”.
‘Singing from the identical hymn sheet’
McKechnie notes the significance of not “policing” tone of content material, however every market has a transparent set of pointers on find out how to strategy social, proper the best way all the way down to constant use of carousels and imagery.
PwC additionally has steerage to maintain a constant tone on its social accounts throughout its markets. The agency’s latest rebrand meant a refresh in its tone of voice and higher alignment in visuals.
“We’re all singing from the identical hymn sheet and pushing model consciousness up reasonably than anyone feeling that they’re on their very own and doing one thing which could not work or align itself with the model,” says McHugh.
Some areas, comparable to Switzerland and the US, even have TikTok accounts, which the UK hasn’t explored but, though McHugh can see the profit.
“The place manufacturers can actually stand out on platforms that are so private, it’s by humanising themselves and bringing their individuals ahead. You’re growing that sense of belief, which is so vital on the minute and can solely turn into extra so,” says McHugh.
PwC has persistently centered on LinkedIn and made use of its reside broadcast features, whereas Instagram is its “second platform” and a “testing floor” for video and carousel codecs. Content material is usually examined there then introduced throughout to LinkedIn.
Within the final month, PwC’s UK LinkedIn web page has seen 69% follower development, fuelled by the corporate’s option to “deal with content material”.
Advocacy for us is a non-negotiable. It’ll be one thing that we are going to proceed to put money into.
Nic McHugh, PwC
All three entrepreneurs again the usage of carousel posts, with Cytiva additionally seeing success from manga/animation model content material and experimenting with 30-second movies.
“We anthropomorphised our expertise as relations. We used gentle humour according to our model’s voice and tone, with the ultimate card being a name to motion saying: ‘I need to be taught extra about this household’. We discovered that was actually impactful. We had 6,000 or one thing impressions, 30% engagement fee, which is insane when you concentrate on that,” says McKechnie.
“For me, it says the largest studying is that in B2B, you may even have enjoyable and be artistic.”
McHugh echoes this opinion, explaining PwC all the time approaches social like it’s speaking to actual individuals as any B2C model would.
“Having that capacity to be fairly reactive on social platforms is one thing that all of us do, whether or not or not you’re B2B or B2C. As a result of we see a few of the thrilling issues which can be taking place in B2C, that conjures up us to do various things ourselves,” she provides.
Whereas Workbooks additionally takes inspiration from B2C, in keeping with Roche a problem B2B corporations face on social media is “attempting to be persistently attention-grabbing and humorous when inherently promoting software program isn’t that humorous or enjoyable”.
“It does require a degree of creativity in our crew to translate fairly advanced merchandise and expertise into one thing that’s really attention-grabbing,” says Roche.
He additionally credit exterior influencers for serving to to share the model’s story in a “non-salesy approach”, though Roche argues the “jury continues to be out” on the influence influencers have on the B2B gross sales cycle. Because the organisation grows, he hopes worker advocacy will develop inside the enterprise.
Check and be taught
All three entrepreneurs see social media content material as having a robust take a look at and be taught ingredient.
Roche explains that, for Workbooks, posts that don’t land are those the place the model was desirous about itself “reasonably than the viewers”.
“Now we all the time suppose ‘Is that this going to entertain somebody?’, reasonably than ‘Is that this going to get somebody to purchase our software program?’” he says.
“If we get somebody to interact with our content material, in the event that they discover it humorous, then after we name them or after we e mail them, or once they’re able to search for a CRM system, then possibly they’ll think about us.”
PwC persistently measures the success of its content material, with McHugh noting engagement with carousels has “completely rocketed” just lately. Though the model used to see success from LinkedIn Stay, it’s transferring extra to “snippets”, YouTube content material and sharing podcast highlights.
“The edits are sooner, the backgrounds are essential, the scripting is much lower than it might have been beforehand, the place we’re asking individuals to not use auto cues and to really feel freer to share their very own ideas in their very own voice, so that you simply’re getting that authenticity,” says McHugh.
“By doing issues in a really genuine approach that’s proper for PwC, I really feel like we’re actually connecting with our viewers. And our follower development, fortunately, reveals it.”
Cytiva’s success on social is seen as a “main indicator” for model salience, model consciousness and desire, with customary social engagement metrics analysed usually. Whether or not there’s “significant dialogue” within the feedback can be key, in addition to share of voice or assisted conversions if a selected occasion is being pushed.
“Lots of people on the very starting thought social ought to have its personal particular metrics. Social is simply one of many many different channels to our prospects and you should utilize it in precisely the identical approach. With the identical mind-set as you’ll some other channel,” says McKechnie.
He sees social as a approach to “nudge individuals in direction of a extra significant interplay” with the model, comparable to making a purchase order.
“We’re not attempting to maintain individuals on our YouTube channel. We’re not attempting to maintain individuals glued to us on LinkedIn. We need to meet them the place they’re, present them with a helpful expertise to construct belief. In B2B, belief is completely vital,” McKechnie concludes.
Advertising Week will proceed its reporting from the State of B2B Advertising survey over the approaching weeks.
