Crack the Code: The 2025 Ultimate Guide to B2B Tech Social Media
How Marketing Leaders Can Leverage Social to Accelerate Growth – And The Most Common Mistakes They Make
Love it or hate it, social media is no longer the newcomer in the marketer's toolkit. It's indispensable – a prerequisite for sales success.
Today's business-to-business buyers conduct extensive research outside the traditional sales funnel structure. 81% have already chosen their top platform or service before they even talk to a sales rep (6sense, 2024).
They're diving into trade publications for industry pulse checks, scrutinizing your executives' thought leadership on LinkedIn, scouring G2 for unfiltered product reviews, and listening to trusted industry voices on YouTube and Spotify.
In fact, 75% of B2B buyers prefer a "rep-free sales experience" (Gartner, 2023).
Business-to-business brands have been slow to adopt the latest social strategies and tactics. That leaves a blue ocean for savvy marketers in industries like cybersecurity, cloud computing, and FinTech.
Properly executed, paid and owned social can grow your brand, increase share-of-voice, reduce customer support tickets, generate and nurture leads, and otherwise enhance revenue operations (RevOps).
What can you do to take advantage of social media? First, let's align on the basics.
The What: Social Media in the B2B Landscape
For the purposes of this post, social media is a catch-all term for places where users and brands can easily communicate, share information, and consume content. Popular platforms include LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and X (formerly Twitter). I would argue that we include Reddit and YouTube here as well.
Unlike more traditional marketing and advertising channels, social media allows your audience to express their thoughts and feelings toward your brand, in public, at scale. And your audience expects to be able to engage directly with you in conversation.
Remember: You might be selling to businesses, but it's people that you have to convince.
Primarily, B2B tech brands focus on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. LinkedIn claims 1 billion members, and 67 million companies have listed their brands there. 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions, and LinkedIn's audience has 2X the buying power of the average web audience (LinkedIn Audience 360 Study + Salesforce Advertising Index Report, 2016).
Selling to head honchos? LinkedIn boasts 10 million C-Suite executives.
The Why: The Data on Social
Data demonstrates what intuition suggests: Your buyers are making decisions through digital channels before they ever speak with your team.
Research shows that decision-makers form vendor preferences through extensive social media research, with 85% considering peer insights essential in their evaluation process (Gartner, 2021).
This focus on social as a critical marketing tool isn't merely theoretical, and we're not just tooting our horns as social media specialists. Social is measurably impacting your pipeline and competitive position – and your sales team might agree.
33% of sales professionals report that social media brings in the highest quality leads – on par with referrals from existing customers (Hubspot, 2023).
The point? Probably belabored.
You? Ready to get started.
Here are some strategies and tips to help you leverage social to directly increase revenue.
The How: Methods to Win Social Media
Paid
Paid social refers to advertising on social media channels, including video, lead gen forms, and sponsored or "boosted' posts. Paid offers predictable reach and targeting precision but can require substantial investment for highly targeted B2B audiences. Recently, we delivered an 82% decrease in costs-per-lead for a client – but still, paid requires a real budget.
But budgetary constraints aren't stopping most brands, even in our current unpredictable market. This year, we can expect brands to spend $227 billion on paid social, reaching $433B in 2030 (Statista, 2024).
Tactics:
Generate: Create gated content, host webinars and events, and leverage LinkedIn and Meta lead capture campaigns
Amplify: Boost top-performing content to expand your reach
Retarget: Advertise to those who have taken key actions – watching a video, downloading a report, or visiting your site
Organic / Owned
Organic is great for top-of-funnel outreach and awareness. It can increase brand visibility, minimize sales objections, and serve as a customer support channel.
Implementing organic social media led to a 2.4X increase in overall website traffic for one of my clients within just a few months.
Tactics:
Create: Design a content calendar that enables your team to post consistently
Trendsjack: Be nimble, finding ways to leverage the latest trends without being spammy
Leverage: Utilize the types of content that platform algorithms are designed to reward*
*In 2025, this is video, document/PDF posts, and polls.
Earned
Earned social media awards great content. It's the organic publicity your brand achieves through word-of-mouth, shares, mentions, and reviews.
We implemented an employee advocacy program for a cybersecurity client, encouraging social media sharing of important company research and thought leadership. In just 31 days, we increased share-of-voice by 300% compared to top competitors.
Tactics:
Connect: Develop close relationships with influencers, trade journalists, and industry groups
Advocate: Invest in customer and employee advocacy programs
Engage: Tag clients in success stories and respond to mentions*
Bonus Tip: Active social listening can help you engage with untagged brand mentions, discover key influencers and media, and track your advocacy efforts.
Dark
Dark social refers to the private sharing of messages through messaging apps, LinkedIn DMs, Facebook groups, and email. It's "dark" because it's notoriously hard to measure. Convince & Convert has a great research piece that tries to nail down the amount of dark social sharing, coming up with anywhere from 21% to 80%. (Notoriously hard is right.)
To measure this largely invisible traffic, make sure that every piece of shareable content uses unique UTM parameters.
The content that performs well? The same that performs well everywhere else – exclusive research reports, entertaining insights, and educational how-to pieces.
Tactics:
Build: Create your own communities and forums, hosted on your website or through Slack and Discord
Survey: Share exclusive reports and research that your audience will want to share with colleagues
Leverage: Collaborate with influencers to engage their private communities
The Future of B2B Social Media: Your Competitive Edge
We've covered a lot of ground – and yet, there is so much more to discuss. At the end of the day, social media isn't just another box to check on your marketing to-do.
Social will become where your business lives or dies.
The brands that recognize this shift and adapt will crush it, achieving exponential growth.
Cut the Fluff and Measure What Counts
Sure, likes and shares feel good. But let's be honest: your CFO doesn't care about impressions or follower counts until you can translate them into actual business results.
Consider:
How many pipeline opportunities came from social?
Did we spend less to acquire customers?
Are we drowning out competitors in the conversation?
Are customers sticking around longer?
Can we hire better people because of our brand presence?
The winners in this space tie everything back to revenue and growth. Period.
It's Not Just About Shiny Graphics and Algorithms
Want the secret? Stop thinking about "doing social media" and build a genuinely social company. That means everyone – your developers, support staff, and leadership – needs to get comfortable showing up online.
The companies leaving everyone else in the dust aren't just posting more. They've made digital connection a key part of their DNA.
Next Steps:
Take a hard look at what you're doing now. What's working? What's not? Be brutally honest.
Figure out what business problems social can actually solve for you, and focus there.
Get your experts talking. They're your secret weapon; translate their expertise into content.
Try new things constantly, and see if the spaghetti sticks to the wall. The platforms change weekly. You should too.
Engage outside support. A fresh perspective will minimize groupthink and help you explore missing possibilities
In today's digital-first business environment, the question isn't whether your B2B tech company should invest in social media—it's whether you can afford not to. Your competitors are already there, your prospects are actively researching, and the opportunity to differentiate through authentic connection has never been greater.
Whether they're PaaS, API security, or LendingTech, tomorrow's most successful B2B tech will harness social as their competitive advantage, transforming digital relationships into lasting partnerships that drive sustainable growth.
Ready to call in the experts? Get in touch, and we'll share insights and tips custom to make your social sing. 🎶
"Tom Basgil displays that rare combination of strategy and creative execution that makes social media programs sing." - Jeff, CMO, Yellowbrick
About Tom Basgil (Or, Why Trust Me?)
Great question. I've led social media marketing and advertising campaigns for nearly 20 years.
I've worked with clients across industries as diverse as amusement parks to graywater removal, Bayer to Red Bull. For the past decade, I've worked in B2B tech for clients from startups to global enterprises, including Expedia Group, Legrand, Qlik, Traceable, and Rimini Street.
Learn more about me here, and feel free to connect on LinkedIn.