B2B Social Media Marketing — Why Traffic & Engagement is Low?
So, you stumbled upon this here and looking out for ways to know the exact reasons for low social media engagement & traffic? Well, you’re not alone! Most of the small & medium B2B companies usually face the problem of fluctuations in engagement & traffic. To find out more, let’s get started!
In the past few years, Facebook, Twitter, etc. made some significant changes in their algorithms and thus led to low social media engagement & traffic. But, should we consider this as the main reason? Before speaking about it, let’s find out the main changes that social media networks made, which led to a drop in engagement & traffic.
Changes in Social Media Networks for Low Engagement
Facebook:
- Facebook has changed its algorithm for newsfeed many times, and now users/fans will see what they are more interested in and is mostly based on their previous engagement over posts & brands
- The posts on the users’ Timeline are shown based on many factors like the type of post — image/link, how engaging it is, etc.
- Sometimes the post may reach 1,000 people, but still, the engagement will be low, and the possible reason is they might not be interested in reading/clicking the article at that moment. Here’s an article explaining the 90–9–1 rule
Twitter:
Twitter has also made a few changes in its Twitter feed algorithm, and this made the user timeline filled up with the most engaging tweets first rather than the latest tweets. Simply, the Twitter timeline algorithm is very like that of Facebook.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn has its algorithm, which also personalizes the users’ news feed based on user behavior over brands & posts. So, the engagement rate varies as it is purely based on user interest.
Reasons for Low Traffic from Social Media
- Most of the time, B2B company sites cover a broad range of services, it is to be noted that the audience you have might may be interested in a few categories
- So, whenever the posts fall into that category, traffic will usually be high as the engagement is high. In contrast, the posts from the other types will often have less reach as the user base might not be interested.
“The main reason for the fall in social media traffic is posting the articles from the same category, again and again.”
- Content diversity is too large, and it is difficult for a user to determine what the page talks about. It makes the user to not click on any of the links
- The articles posted on the pages are more promotional and not useful/information-oriented
- Using the stock images as it is, and copy-pasting the content directly from the article
These are a few of the reasons why your B2B Marketing social media pages experience low engagement, which in turn leads to very little traffic.
To strengthen the article, here’s how big, medium & small scale companies are handling their social media networks.
How do medium and small businesses handle their Social media networks?
For any B2B company, the primary focus is mainly on LinkedIn to generate leads, while the points from Facebook & Twitter are minimal. So, the below guide on B2B companies is purely based on LinkedIn engagement. Also, for understanding, I’m considering the outsourcing industry because of my job experience.
Alright! Let’s check out the social media engagement in medium & small companies -
- Invensis, EOS, Brickwork India, Vee-Technologies, Epicenter, etc. are a few of the notable Outsourcing companies in India with a considerable amount of followers on LinkedIn
- These companies update a single post on all social media networks so you will see the same type of content on all networks
- On their LinkedIn pages, most of the time, the engagement is zero, and the posts where the engagement happens are either on event pictures or whenever they were quoted in the news, high-authority sites, etc.
Poor social media management can be seen in medium & small B2B companies, and in fact, the brand value is not up to the mark
Now, let’s check out how the big MNCs are handling social media networks.
How are Big Companies managing Social media networks?
As already mentioned, I’m considering the outsourcing industry, and the businesses I am quoting here are based on the related company suggestions on the respective LinkedIn pages. Well, let’s get started!
- Firstly, Cognizant, Accenture, IBM, Infosys, Capgemini, TCS, etc. have a vast amount of followers (in lakhs). It is an asset and is mostly due to the brand value & sponsored updates. Also, these companies mostly follow a confined social media plan
- Just like the medium & small businesses, higher engagement can be seen whenever they were quoted on top authority sites and job openings
- Also, the posts are a mixture of Events. How does the company work? Whitepapers, information articles, updates on guest articles, etc. also have decent engagement as they are not promotional
- Even the images posted along with content follow a particular template, and most of them usually showcase facts!
- Also, these companies mostly rely on sponsored updates which not only boost the engagement rate on that particular post but also have a significant impact on user behavior thereby increasing overall engagement
Didn’t you find a pattern from the above?
Hmm! Let me explain — The big companies have a definite social media plan, and follow everything that helps to increase engagement while the other businesses just update the social media networks, as they want the audience to know. It is why these companies fail to generate decent engagement from social media.
Well, these are some of the reasons and facts why the majority of B2B companies experience little social media traffic & engagement.
Note: This article was first published on my blog dated January 12, 2017, and republished here.
