B2B Live Video Examples to Inspire Your Social Media Strategy

This is the third in a series of in-depth articles from 1827 Marketing on the topic of social media live streaming. Throughout this series, we have focused on the importance of live video streaming for social media as a powerful B2B marketing tool.

The first article in this series, revealed the opportunity of going live on social media. It shared some of the many benefits, background research and potential concerns in developing a B2B social media strategy.

In our second article, we looked at the options on popular social media platforms.

In this, the final article in our series, we look at some B2B companies using live video on social media. We pull out some top tips for live streaming, and provide inspiration on best practices for live events.

Best Examples of a Live Streamed B2B Social Marketing Strategy

Social media is evolving rapidly. Social media platforms offer businesses new ways to speak with their target audiences. Here are some of examples to get your creative juices flowing:

SAP

Founded in 1972, SAP is one of the world’s leading software producers. Their products are used for the management of business processes and developing solutions to facilitate effective data processing and information flow. They help a worldwide network of business customers to work together more efficiently and use business insights more effectively.

Two of their live streaming initiatives include the SAP business technology platform Better Together: Customer Conversations Series and their SuccessFactors’ Rise of HXM series. "Better Together" uses live streaming via LinkedIn Live to foster communication and share experiences around its business technology platform.

Live streaming also ties together with the company’s podcast, blog, and social content. Episodes have looked at boosting sustainability and efficiency through digital transformation, sustainable IT for business, and customer success stories. In this way, they turn great customer service into great customer experience.

"SuccessFactors" uses LinkedIn Live to present content on human experience management. It also runs on YouTube, Facebook, and non-video digital content formats. Episodes highlight industry experts talking about topics relevant to their audience.

SAP is building a strong B2B worldwide community via live streaming. They offer monthly episodes that include candid conversations filled with insights from customers, partners, and thought leaders. A coordinated strategy includes:

• An intro blog that provides a first look at the episode.

• A podcast discussing the episode.

• On-demand LinkedIn capabilities that provide access to deeper conversations.

• Blog posts that provide even more insights.

Other B2B marketers can benefit by following their dedication to providing regular and ongoing information via live streaming outlets.

Notion

Founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco, U.S., Notion Labs is a producer of management and workplace productivity software. The company has over four million users scheduling tasks, managing files, and creating business management systems on their platform.

The company hosts regular live webinars covering workplace basics and advanced use cases including:

• Hot Seat with Marie Poulin! Monthly on Wednesdays. Marie is a Notion influencer and power user. She puts startup team members on the spot to create systems for their organisation. They show off their current space, explain the pitfalls they've run into, and move towards systems-based clarity.

• Notion for large teams - training series: Weekly on Thursdays. Notion provides help with in-depth tips and tricks for success. This targeted content helps whether you're the first person in your organisation to try Notion, or someone joining a well-defined workspace.

• Workspace setup for teams: Monthly on Tuesdays. Notion’s Customer Success Team presents information on best practices. They cover setting up and structuring a team’s workspace, as well as how to avoid letting it devolve into chaos.

Previous webinars are available for easy access. They have also repurposed content from a day-long conference, Block by Block, that was hosted on Hopin. In-depth tutorials and demos appeared on YouTube for on demand access post-event.

If you are a B2B company who wants to build an online community around education and product development, follow their example.

Eaton

Since its beginning in 1911, Eaton has grown to become a global power management company. They do business in more than 175 countries. Its products and services are designed to help people work more safely, be more energy efficient, and reduce emissions. The company’s energy-efficient products and services help customers manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more reliably, efficiently, safely and sustainably.

Eaton successfully utilises live-streaming to highlight a variety of topics. They've hosted a LinkedIn Live broadcast focused on inclusion and diversity. Other topics have included “Enabling a digital mindset,” “How to build your career,” and “Taking ownership of your career.”

Each event uses live stream content to inform, drive conversations, and build thought leadership.

A live streaming “Ask the Experts” series covers a vast array of technical topics. The company also uses interactive social media elements to accompany live video streams. For example, they use LinkedIn polls to ask their audience questions related to upcoming episodes.

In a rapidly-changing environment, you can use live streams to communicate the latest information to the widest possible array of customers and prospects.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud provides the industry standard suite of applications and services for graphic design, video editing, web development, and photography. Their content team produces a regular schedule of live video events. Along the way, they answer the needs of customers at different stages in the buyers journey.

Adobe Live is hosted on Behance, their own creative social platform, as well as YouTube. Their audience can tune in to livestreams from leading creatives, masterclasses, and take part in live design challenges.

Their strategy makes sure that existing users get the most from their investment, with ongoing education and inspiration for using their software. It also shows prospective buyers what is possible and helps them to imagine the career they could have.

The events create a buzz and community around the brand, extending their reach by featuring influential creatives. Adobe also hosts live events on LinkedIn, including live demos and a platform appropriate series called "My Dream Job Journey To...".

As you would expect from a brand that is synonymous with professional creativity, production values are high. Presenters reinforce their marketing approach, creating a sense of co-creation with their community.

Top Tips for Live Streaming Social Media

B2B marketers use all types of social media live streaming platforms to create connections and achieve their marketing goals. Video streaming can provide a powerful support to a strategy that requires communication, lead generation, education, lead nurturing, and marketing automation. Top tips for effectively using social media for marketing in the B2B environment include:

• Know your audience: Know what is of interest to current and prospective customers and cater to those needs. Whether they are newcomers or experienced veterans makes a difference in the type of content and information you provide.

• Be consistent: Set a schedule and stick to it. Once your audience begins to experience your live videos on a regular basis, they will come to rely on them. Plan out your production schedule.

• Promote your events: Encourage your audience to set time aside to participate by being clear about the benefits. But go further with your outreach effort to get participants and promote it more widely after the fact for those who miss it.

• Be ready to respond: If a newsworthy topic or issue comes up, jump on it! Regardless of your regular scheduled programming, arrange a quick live stream in response to show you have your finger on the pulse.

• Be creative: Use a variety of methods to present content through social media live streaming. Host Q&A sessions, tutorials, stream interviews, demonstrate your products, make announcements, or showcase your team.

• Be professional: Remember that you are speaking in a business environment, and conduct your live streams accordingly. Use high production standards to reflect the professionalism of your company.

• Spread the effect: Make your live streams available for repeat viewings or direct interested parties to their storage location. You can also spread the effect through public relations, social media marketing, blogs, email and online tutorials. Once you have the content available, make it available to as wide of an audience as possible.

We hope you have found these articles about live streaming social media to be helpful and informative. If you haven't considered using live video on social as part of your B2B content strategy, it might be time to take the plunge. You'll need some great ideas for creating campaigns and experiences your customers will love, and a willingness to experiment.

At 1827 Marketing, we help businesses to develop and deliver their content strategy in a more cost-efficient and effective way. If your B2B video marketing strategy is failing, we'd love to have a conversation. We can help bring it all together with strategic planning, content creation, marketing automation and social amplification.