Social Media Strategy for B2B Companies

Here’s a truth most B2B companies don’t want to hear: your social media probably isn’t generating any measurable business results. It’s consuming time, producing nice-looking posts, and getting a handful of likes from your colleagues. But leads? Revenue? Crickets.

The reason is simple: most B2B companies apply B2C social media tactics to a B2B audience. They create “engaging” content hoping it goes viral, post motivational quotes on a Monday, and wonder why decision-makers at target companies aren’t falling over themselves to get in touch.

B2B social media requires a fundamentally different approach. Here’s what actually works.

B2C social media is about volume: reach as many people as possible, create brand awareness, drive impulse purchases. The metrics that matter are reach, engagement, and followers.

B2B social media is about precision: reach the right 200 people at the right companies, build trust over time, and be the obvious choice when they need your service. One conversation with a decision-maker is worth more than 10,000 impressions.

This changes everything about your strategy:

Content should demonstrate expertise, not entertain
Platforms should be where decision-makers spend time, not where the biggest audiences are
Metrics should track conversations and leads, not likes and followers
Frequency matters less than relevance and quality

Choose Your Platform (It’s Probably LinkedIn)

Let me save you some time:

LinkedIn: Your Primary Platform

For 90% of B2B companies, LinkedIn is the only social platform you need to invest seriously in. Here’s why:

Decision-makers are there. 80% of B2B leads from social media come through LinkedIn.
Professional context. People are there to talk business. Your content isn’t competing with cat videos.
Targeting is unmatched. You can target by job title, company, industry, seniority — no other platform comes close.
Organic reach still works. Unlike Facebook, a good LinkedIn post can reach thousands without spending a penny.

Other Platforms: Secondary at Best

Twitter/X: Useful for some B2B sectors (tech, media, finance). Good for thought leadership and real-time engagement. But the audience quality is declining, and it’s noisy.

YouTube: Excellent for B2B if you can create video content (tutorials, case studies, webinars). It’s a search engine, so content lives forever. But video requires significant production effort.

Facebook: Occasionally useful for local B2B (targeting business owners in a specific area). Otherwise, poor for B2B lead generation.

Instagram/TikTok: Almost never relevant for B2B unless your brand is highly visual (architecture, design, events).

My recommendation: Go all-in on LinkedIn. If you have capacity after that, add one secondary platform based on where your specific audience spends time.

The LinkedIn Strategy That Generates Leads

Personal Profiles > Company Pages

This is counter-intuitive but critically important: personal profiles outperform company pages on LinkedIn by 5-10x in terms of reach and engagement.

People connect with people, not logos. A thoughtful post from your MD gets 10x the views of the same content posted on the company page.

The strategy:

Your key people (MD, sales lead, subject matter experts) should be posting regularly from their personal profiles
The company page supports with reposts, job listings, and official content
Personal posts should feel personal — opinions, lessons learned, client stories (anonymised), industry commentary

Content That Works for B2B on LinkedIn

What performs well:

Lessons from experience — “Here’s what went wrong when we…” or “After 15 years in the industry, the one thing I’d change is…”
Contrarian opinions — Challenge industry norms (respectfully). “Everyone says [X], but in my experience, [Y].”
Client results — Anonymised case studies: “We helped a manufacturing firm cut their marketing spend by 40% while increasing leads by 25%. Here’s how.”
Practical how-to content — Share genuine expertise. Give away knowledge freely.
Industry commentary — React to news, trends, or regulations relevant to your audience.

What performs poorly:

Company announcements nobody cares about
Resharing articles with “Great read!” and nothing else
Hard sales pitches (“We’re the leading provider of…”)
Stock images with inspirational quotes
Posts that read like press releases

Posting Cadence

Personal profiles: 3-4 times per week is the sweet spot. Enough to stay visible, not so much that you’re annoying.

Company page: 2-3 times per week. Repurpose blog content, share team posts, post company updates.

Key rule: Consistency beats frequency. Two posts a week, every week, for a year beats daily posting for three weeks followed by silence.

Engage Before You Post

Here’s a trick most people miss: spend 10 minutes engaging with other people’s content before you post your own.

Comment thoughtfully on 5-10 posts from people in your target audience, industry peers, or potential clients. This does three things:

Gets your name in front of the right people
Signals to LinkedIn’s algorithm that you’re active (boosting your next post’s reach)
Builds genuine relationships over time

LinkedIn Outreach (Without Being Sleazy)

LinkedIn outreach has a terrible reputation because most people do it terribly. The “Hi [Name], I noticed your profile and thought…” template followed by a sales pitch is spam. Don’t do it.

Good outreach looks like this:

Connect with a reason: “Hi Sarah — I saw your talk at the [event] last month. Really interesting points on supply chain AI. Would love to connect.”
Engage with their content first: Like and comment on their posts for a few weeks before reaching out.
Offer value before asking for anything: Share a relevant article, offer a helpful insight, introduce them to someone useful.
When you do ask, be direct and honest: “We help companies like yours with [specific thing]. Would you be open to a 15-minute conversation to see if there’s a fit?”

The rule: If your message reads like it was sent to 500 other people, it won’t work. Personalisation and genuine interest are non-negotiable.

Forget vanity metrics. Here’s what to measure:

Leading Indicators (Track Weekly)

Profile views — Are the right people looking at your profile?
Connection requests from target audience — Are decision-makers reaching out?
Engagement quality — Comments from target audience > likes from peers
Content saves — People saving your posts is a strong intent signal

Business Metrics (Track Monthly)

Conversations started — DMs, comments leading to calls
Leads generated — People who’ve moved from LinkedIn to a sales conversation
Pipeline influenced — Deals where LinkedIn was a touchpoint (even if not the first)
Revenue attributed — How much business came from LinkedIn connections

How to Track Attribution

Add “How did you hear about us?” to your enquiry forms. Include “LinkedIn” as an option. You’ll be surprised how many people say “I’ve been following you on LinkedIn for months.”

For a deeper dive into marketing measurement, read our guide on how to measure marketing ROI.

You don’t need hours. You need consistency.

Morning (15 minutes):

Open LinkedIn
Comment on 5 posts from your target audience (genuine, thoughtful comments — not “Great post!”)
Accept relevant connection requests
Reply to any DMs or comments on your content

Lunchtime or afternoon (15 minutes):

Write and schedule today’s post (or post one you pre-wrote in a batch session)
Check notifications for new engagement opportunities

Weekly (30 minutes):

Review this week’s analytics: what performed, what didn’t
Plan next week’s content themes
Identify 5-10 new people to connect with

That’s it. 30 minutes a day, consistently, will outperform any amount of sporadic activity.

At Black Sheep Marketing, we build B2B marketing strategies that focus on what matters: conversations, leads, and revenue. Not followers, likes, or “brand awareness.”

If your social media is consuming time without delivering results, let’s fix that.

Book a Free Strategy Call →

Social Media Strategy for B2B Companies