Post Performance Report: B2B brands taking a bold approach to social

It’s time for another edition of the Post Performance Report (PPR), a series where we showcase social media posts and campaigns inspiring us, and explore what makes them so genius. We unpack how your brand can use these examples to spark your own scroll-stopping ideas—while maximizing your budget and doing more with less.

If you’ve heard that B2B brands have no place on social, you’re not alone. There’s a persistent, false notion that social is just for B2C brands—that it offers no real value to B2B companies and their customers, or influences their revenue. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s the perfect channel for increasing discoverability, nurturing customer relationships and driving leads.

The brands in this lineup prove B2B social marketing can be just as creative and results-driven as B2C. Let’s explore how each one builds their social strategy, and takeaways you can use to make the case for investment and leadership buy-in.

Oracle: Show don’t tell

Oracle is a comprehensive platform of cloud applications and services. In recent years, the company has become synonymous with AI innovation, emerging as a market leader and brand to watch.

On social, Oracle’s approach involves giving prospects and customers a hands-on, immersive way to interact with their technology and services. For example, they share videos of execs giving tours of their facilities. Like this short-form video of an Executive Vice President showing viewers around the building that houses the brand’s AI infrastructure, their OCI Supercluster.

Users reacted overwhelmingly positively to this video, writing “Is it possible to spend a night inside it (with my sleeping bag)?” and “Love seeing Clay talk about this, kudos to all of the teams and individuals bringing these beasts to life!” The post received over 1,000 reactions and 244 reposts on LinkedIn, evidence that it successfully engaged their audience, while demonstrating their executive thought leadership and industry advancements.

Oracle has also doubled down on sports marketing, co-sponsoring an F1 team with energy drink brand Red Bull. Over the past few months, they’ve been posting Reels of F1 drivers using Oracle’s virtual lap technology.

Oracle’s ability to translate their expertise through tangible examples has led the company to become a powerhouse in the AI cloud service industry, soaring their stock prices and winning share of voice (on social and beyond).

The play: Oracle sidesteps a mistake a lot of B2B brands make by using social as an immersive tool, rather than a billboard. Take a cue from the brand by creating experiences that allow people to interact with your product (even if it’s virtually). It’s one thing to promote your capabilities; it’s another thing to show how they work—especially if you entertain your audience at the same time.

3M: Engineers + influencers = golf tournament?

One of the largest B2B organizations in the world, 3M is behind the invention of sandpaper, masking tape, Post-it Notes and many other household items. While the brand functions firmly as a B2B company, it uses B2C techniques to appeal to end-consumers and boost its public profile. Like through this year’s 3M Open, a golf tournament created by the brand.

The 3M Open is different from others in the professional circuit—because all the golfers are 3M engineers. Though these engineers are brilliant innovators, they’re mostly average (or below average) on the green. The event was hosted by creators like @ThatsMyBoyJacob and @JakeHuttGolf on social media, who provided hilarious commentary—pointing out the engineers’ swing-and-a-misses, double bogies and watery graves.

But the hosts also weaved in educational facts about 3M technology, which is used for golf clubs, adhesives, rocketships and more. In fact, some of the engineers playing in the tournament created the technology that powered the mechanics of their golf clubs.

The result was pure delight. One commenter said, “This was the best, most entertaining ad I’ve ever seen.” According to Sprout Social Listening data from July 7 to August 8, 2024, mentions of the brand and the 3M Open were 87% positive.

The play: Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to humanize your brand and reach new audiences, and it should be part of every B2B social team’s strategy. When you incorporate your employees into influencer activations, you amplify your efforts tenfold. The 3M Open also proves that you can talk about your products in ways that are deeply entertaining and funny.

ServiceNow: Making B2B actually cool

ServiceNow is a software company that helps enterprise companies manage their digital workflows. Despite that professional and buttoned-up description, the brand is (dare we say) downright cool on social media.

Like when they jumped on the trending conversation about cringe-worthy workplace jargon and gave it their own multiverse spin. In the video, the ServiceNow team interprets overplayed sayings (e.g., ducks in a row, foot in the door, etc.) literally—in a way that perfectly articulates their audience’s sense of humor. The post is so natural and topical, it feels like something a B2C brand would craft.

ServiceNow also promoted their 20 year anniversary by doing the Charlie XCX-inspired Apple dance and showcased their intern program as if it was the intro to “The Office.”

Most notably, they used Idris Elba’s star power to promote their AI capabilities in their newest ads (who said celebrity spokespeople were only for B2C marketing?). The ad campaign effectively grabs audience attention while telling their product story with humor and finesse.

Media outlets like Forbes have called ServiceNow’s approach to AI “bold and visionary,” words that could just as easily describe their social presence. With 1 million followers on LinkedIn alone, it’s clear the brand’s social efforts are complementing (if not feeding) their rapid growth and reputation as industry disruptors.

The play: We’ve all heard B2B marketers say, “We want our presence to feel like a B2C brand.” ServiceNow is a prime example of what that looks like in practice, and how to use emotion to captivate your audience. Take a cue from their unorthodox, cutting-edge playbook and break out of borecore norms that plague B2B marketing.

Pfizer: Educating the end consumer

Pfizer is a pharmaceutical biotechnology company that develops and produces products for many areas of medicine, including immunology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology and neurology. Though Pfizer sells some B2C over-the-counter health products, much of their company’s mission revolves around the research, creation and distribution of life-saving vaccines.

In their social content, the brand shares stories from end consumers. Those who actually use the products they create. By doing so, they position their customers—the distributors—as the heroes who help people stay healthy.

They also create educational content that curbs the spread of misinformation online in an effort to positively impact public health and explain how their products work.

The play: For B2B brands, social isn’t just a place to connect with your customers—it’s a place to connect with their customers, too. Consider how your efforts on social can educate everyone in your brand’s universe.

Canva: Making social their canvas

Canva hardly needs an introduction among social marketers. The graphic design platform offers tools that make it easy to create presentations, posters, videos and more. On social, the brand leans into their design mission, inspiring their audience by showing them what it’s possible to create with their solutions in ways that feel funny yet helpful.

Like their in-office challenges between their designers. Or their video where they turned designs on a screen into physical merch, a visually captivating display of the platform’s full capabilities.

The brand also showcases their new product offerings by speaking to the all-too-relatable pain points their audience faces. And how their tools can help them (easily) impress their boss.

According to Sprout Social Listening data on X from July 9 to August 8, 2024, Canva owns 99% of the overall social media volume compared to their top four competitors, and maintains an impressive 91% positive sentiment rate. This demonstrates how deeply they understand their audience, and how much their messages resonate.

The play: Use audience intel (like social listening) to understand how customers feel about your products and use them day-to-day. Your learnings can help guide your content, and more accurately showcase your product features on social.

Creator spotlight: Jayde Powell

Jayde Powell is a social media marketing creator who’s built an impressive following, especially on LinkedIn (or as she calls it, the “Briefcase App”). In her posts, she speaks directly to other creators, brands and social marketers.

Powell’s presence stands out because of her pop culture references, realness and the joy she brings to speaking about the industry. All of her posts are relatable and fun, enough to make LinkedIn users stop their scroll and engage. (Believe us, she’s not trying to make any metaphors about B2B sales.)

The play: Remember that B2B buyers, regardless of the brand they work for, are people, too. They want to connect with other humans on social, and for it to feel fun and genuine.

Whether it’s B2B or B2C, it’s still human to human

That wraps up our latest installment of the Post Performance Report franchise. Stay tuned for next month’s edition where we’ll be focusing on brands acing back-to-school marketing. In the meantime, B2B and B2C marketers alike should remember these key takeaways:

And if you see a social post or campaign that deserves to be highlighted, tag us @sproutsocial and use #PostPerformanceReport to have your idea included in a future article.