We’ve been asking Siri for help since 2011. Alexa since 2014 and Google assistant since 2016. Each of these digital assistants is a form of AI-powered by natural language processing but did you know this same tech can supercharge your social media marketing strategy, too?
We now live in a world where AI—machines that can mimic human intelligence and solve complex problems speedily—aren’t just being used to create more realistic and lifelike digital assistants, but to diagnose diseases earlier and more accurately, to enhance security, and to drive cars.
But increasingly, AI is becoming a powerful tool for social media marketers to gain competitive advantages in the B2B business world and to level up social media marketing campaigns.
This growth of AI technology and its widespread adaptation in everyday life is now enabling us b2b social media marketers to be more effective than ever before.
Why AI & Social Media Is the Future of B2B Marketing
Witness a few current landmark investments made by Google and Twitter in intelligent technology:
Google paid 12.6 billion to acquire the data analytics toolmaker Looker to automate its data analytics offerings, which has transformed Google’s analytics offerings
With the increased need for behavioral monitoring, Twitter paid 22.8 billion for Fabula AI, a London-based start-up with world-class machine learning researchers who employ graph deep learning to detect network manipulation, to strengthen its machine learning expertise
That’s not to say Google and Twitter have perfect AI offerings, but they do supersize your power, kind of like slipping on a marketing Iron Man suit.
You can see the draw in the numbers. According to Verified Market Research, the global AI in the social media market is projected to reach $6.12 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 28.82% from 2021 to 2028. There are countless other peer studies that point to the same general ballpark.
The McKinsey State of AI 2021 report notes that business AI adoption is most common in service operations, product and service development, and marketing and sales.
AI is growing in sales and marketing because marketers find it useful. AI makes it possible for businesses to not just scale and budget their social media marketing efforts, but to beeline it to better audience understanding.
Using today’s computational intelligence, businesses can automate many of their b2b marketing needs:
Responding to many customer inquiries
Customer relationship management
Posting social media content regularly
Reputation management
Content creation
Market research
Data analysis
Using AI for social media b2b marketing this way saves time, and money, and tightens up the nuts and bolts of your marketing campaigns. Let’s find out how.
What Is Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is a computer technology that creates computer programs or algorithms that emulate or replicate human cognitive abilities such as learning and problem-solving. These capabilities include the ability to think, reason, decide, understand, predict, and make decisions.
AI research has focused on creating systems that can not only perform tasks requiring human intelligence in a wide variety of contexts, but also on creating systems that can learn from data, experience, and human interaction.
Artificial intelligence can be divided by function:
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
The ability for computers to understand the text and spoken words in much the same way human beings can.
Siri and Alexa
Predictive text
Machine Learning (ML)
The use of data and algorithms to gradually improve its accuracy.
Social media feed algorithm
Netflix algorithms
Spotify algorithm
Computer Vision (CV)
The ability for computers to learn from images, videos, and other inputs.
Facial recognition
Snapchat filters
Autonomous Agents
Software that responds to events independently without the need for instruction by the user or owner of the agent, but acts based on the interest of the owner.
Supply chain management systems
Viruses
Bots
8 Ways To Leverage AI for B2B Social Media Marketing Strategies
There are several ways using AI in b2b marketing can make us smarter and more agile, especially in b2b social media.
“Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence,” Ginni Rometty, the former CEO of IBM has famously said.
Here are eight ways AI and b2b social media demonstrate immense power for any b2b marketing strategy.
1. Social Media Management
B2b social media marketing is an effective way to reach potential customers. However, it is not easy to manage multiple platforms all at once, especially when you have a lot of competition.
By using AI automation, marketers can automate many of their day-to-day tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-level tasks.
Automatically creating social media posts
Managing social media posting
Monitoring conversations and responding to them
Increasing customer engagement
Tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social allow you to manage multiple social media accounts from one place, schedule posts and analyze the effectiveness of your social media posts.
2. Social Listening and Market Analysis
Social listening is the process of monitoring social media platforms for mentions of your brand, your competitors, or relevant keywords to help understand customer behavior and other behavioral patterns of your target audience.
It’s a valuable way to conduct market research, to collect data about how people are talking about your brand, what they think of your product or service, and what their needs and wants are.
For example, if you notice behavior patterns or that people are talking about a particular pain point that your product or service can address, you can create content that addresses that pain point.
Social listening can be a valuable tool for any business, but it’s particularly helpful for b2b businesses. That’s because b2b buyers are often more research-oriented than b2c buyers, and they’re more likely to use social media to research potential purchases.
Recently, social listening tools have become available on common social media management platforms like Hootsuite but you can opt for a specialized analytics partner like Netbase Quid.
By using social listening, you can stay ahead of the competition and make sure that you’re creating content that resonates with your target audience.
3. Simplified Data Analysis
AI can help simplify social media data analysis by identifying patterns and correlations that would be difficult for humans to discern. It can also perform predictive analysis—using this for data-driven decision-making about future strategy and to approach your target audience accurately.
AI-powered tools in analytics like Brandwatch can help social media marketers better understand how their sales processes resonate with their audience and what strategies are most effective.
4. AI Can Help with Customer Service
Conversational AI helps manage and enhance your customer’s experience on social media and provides you with valuable insights into your business funnels.
AI tech that can converse like a human called “chatbots” or “pop up messages” conduct surveys, and boost brand awareness in an interactive way without being boring. Automated conversations can help with customer care efficiency and reduce the cost of labor by answering basic frequently asked questions such as hours of operation, contact information, service info, product info, and links to other relevant FAQs. Because the response is almost instantaneous there is no wait time and customers can move to the transactional phases much quicker increasing conversions. Having all the info they need in different formats can help to save the company time and resources that would otherwise be spent on manually responding to customer questions, in addition this also has enabled social media marketers to make real time decisions and pivot B2B marketing strategies based on customer data and pain points of the target audience.
Beyond chatbots, you can use social listening to identify potential problems early on so that they can be addressed before they escalate.
5. Content Creation with AI
AI technology has advanced significantly in recent years, leading to the rise of AI tools for sensible and valuable content creation.
With content creation, AI enables social media marketers to create social media content quickly. Some programs can even learn how to write content marketing assets in a way that is human-like, although it is not yet at the point where it can be mistaken for a human.
AI content creation tools can be used to create social media content in a variety of ways.
To generate original writing for organic posts and social media ads
Transform existing content into different formats.
Produce content ideas
6. Artificial Intelligence and CRM
In a presentation about the future of AI, the Director of Data Science at Salesforce says, “As important as it is to educate the new sets of generations coming in, I also think it’s important to educate the existing workforce, so they can understand how to have AI serve them and their roles.”
AI solutions like BlastPoint can be used in b2b marketing to help with customer relationship management and sales process by automating tasks such as lead generation and customer segmentation. AI can also be used to help make decisions based on customer data about who to target, what offers to make, and when to make them.
7. Influencer B2B Marketing with AI
AI is one of the newest techniques social media marketers are using to increase the value of their influencer marketing. It can analyze social media accounts to find out which are the most engaging and have the most reach and influence for a specific industry.
And keep an eye out on AI influencer marketing–some AI even have their own following. For example, Lil Miquela, an AI personality in and of itself with over 3 million Instagram followers, has been featured in Calvin Klein and Prada ads. You could even make your own.
8. Search Engine Optimization in an AI World
AI helps you optimize your social media content and handle tedious SEO tasks:
Analyzing your content and identifying relevant keywords based on a full competitive picture
Optimizing your content for specific search engines, such as Google and Bing
Identifying and creating quality backlinks
8. Search Engine Optimization in an AI World
AI helps you optimize your social media content and handle tedious SEO tasks:
Analyzing your content and identifying relevant keywords based on a full competitive picture
Optimizing your content for specific search engines, such as Google and Bing
Identifying and creating quality backlinks
Risks of AI and Social Media Marketing
Even your best AI-powered tools aren’t powerful enough to go all Skynet on you, but it is important for marketing executives to understand that there is risk involved with AI-powered technology.
AI systems can be accidentally tricked by people with little or no training on how to use them
Many AI-powered platforms are susceptible to errors and may make mistakes by misunderstanding user behavior, such as classifying an innocent post as spam and consequently banning the user from the platform
Over customization, which happens when a customer receives personalized AI content that gets the personalization wrong, revealing a machine, not a person, has written the message
We’re not at the point of handing the nuclear codes over to the algorithm, but with the right people programming and operating it, AI risks in marketing can all be mitigated.
Will AI Replace B2B Marketers?
Some believe that AI will replace social media marketers altogether simply because AI can do many of our jobs better than we can.
However, it is more likely that AI will only change the nature of our jobs. While Intelligent computers may automate many of the tasks that we do, they can’t automate them all. For example, only humans can develop relationships with other humans. Only humans can understand the nuances of human language. And only humans can create truly original ideas.
So, while adopting AI technologies will automate many of the tasks of b2b marketing, it will not replace marketers. As AI technology continues to develop, we will find new ways to leverage it to be even more efficient and effective in our jobs.
Level Up Your B2B Marketing with AI
The time to use AI in your b2b marketing is now. It can help accelerate revenue and reduce costs and it won’t eliminate your job—it’ll just open new avenues of opportunity and make you more effective at implementing your social media marketing strategy.
Of course, AI isn’t without its risks. Do your due diligence. Read up on AI in b2b social media, but you can also consult with an expert to help you make the best decisions, find the right platforms, and help you to manage them.
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