What B2B content performs best on social media?

Most of us use social media every day, but if you still feel mystified by the process of sharing and creating content, you’re not alone. Technical B2B content can be particularly tough to adapt to the highly visual, fast-paced nature of social.

Drawing on her experience in B2B marketing, our Social Media Specialist, Wamfa Kumdoung, has some tips to help you make sense of the “big three” platforms in B2B social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Remember: You're talking to people

You’ll notice one type of content that performs consistently well across all three platforms, and that’s human-focused content. Posts that feature people — whether it’s people doing hands-on work in the warehouse, bouncing ideas in a boardroom, or celebrating at a staff event — bring authenticity and fun to your social rotation.

While it’s important to share your product and relevant stories from within your industry, those posts don’t capture the people who make your brand successful.

“If every company is doing the same thing, it’s going to be harder to catch a user scrolling on the platform,” says Wamfa. “We try to push towards humanizing content to help differentiate clients from their competitors.”

Focus on practicality with Facebook

Compared to LinkedIn and Instagram, Facebook is a more passive channel that requires a longer-term strategy to pay off. In part, that's because most Facebook users primarily use the platform to keep in touch with friends and read the news. It also tends to draw older generations of users, with Baby Boomers and Gen Xers being the primary audience.

As a top-of-funnel marketing channel, Wamfa says Facebook posts should focus on simplicity to draw the attention of passive scrollers.

"While Facebook and Instagram share similar content formats, Facebook plays a different role for B2B,” she explains. “Users are more likely to engage with simplified, practical messages that fit naturally into casual scrolling, rather than expecting deeper brand storytelling."

With that in mind, Facebook posts should be highly visual, with special attention paid to the size of captions and images. Short snippets of text work best.

“Because of the layout, something I see perform very well is a single static image or short-form video,” Wamfa adds.

Get more technical on LinkedIn

With its built-in networking features and capabilities, LinkedIn is considered the main social media driver for B2B. Aside from its primary function of professional networking, it plays an important role in the buying process, with 52% of buyers in one survey saying LinkedIn impacted their research in a big way.

The demographics show that LinkedIn's appeal is multigenerational, but Millennials still dominate the platform, and overall it tends to draw professionals from higher income brackets. With 10 million C-level executives in its user base — including execs from every Fortune 500 company — it's an established hub for connecting with important decision-makers. The tricky part is standing out in the crowd.

"Because users are in a work-focused mindset, they’re more receptive to content that demonstrates expertise, strategic thinking, and real-world impact," says Wamfa. "However, the content that performs strongest balances authority with humanization by highlighting people, processes, and behind-the-scenes perspectives that make brands feel credible, relatable, and trustworthy rather than purely promotional."

In terms of thought leadership content, she finds two things work best. One is medium-length posts with the main points broken down into bullets. The other is writing just one sentence and showing all the information in attached images, such as carousels showing industry statistics or product benefits.

LinkedIn also has integrated tools for publishing articles, which can be leveraged to share expertise in a longer, more detailed format.

She adds that it’s important to meet your audience at their current level of knowledge. “People on LinkedIn generally know how the machinery works, what their business is looking for, and the technical terms for the parts or equipment they need.”

So, unlike the simplified approach on Facebook, you should assume LinkedIn users are familiar with the problem they want to solve and want more in-depth information about how your product or service helps them solve it.

Show products in action on Instagram

In terms of activity, most Instagram users say they like to share photos and videos on the platform, look for funny or entertaining content, and stay in touch with friends — and 62% use it to follow or research brands or products.

Thanks to its format, Instagram is the most visual of all three platforms. Almost 84% of Instagram users are under the age of 45, which includes younger professionals, so your strategy should revolve around highly visual, bite-sized, and authentic content.

It also doesn’t allow a direct way to share links, so users need to follow more steps to reach your website or landing page. Knowing that, Wamfa says the ideal strategy is about building brand awareness rather than driving direct conversions.

“It’s about growing trust and visibility — getting to know the brand, seeing the brand, and hearing about the product,” she says. “It’s a good idea to show products in action, so users can see how the product actually looks, works, and moves in real-world use.”

Since Instagram is better optimized for reels (or short-form video), they tend to perform better than static posts. That said, image carousels also garner good results, and people-focused posts are especially popular when they look less polished and more authentic.