With over 4.5 billion worldwide in 2021, social media has become an important communication channel with a critical role for brands.

Many brands acknowledge the dynamic digital marketing capabilities of social media. They are using social media platforms to raise brand awareness, engage people, acquire new customers, and increase conversions.

According to the Sprout Social Index, engaging with customers on social networking sites can prompt them to make an online shopping purchase.

48% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when you answer their questions on social media.

46% of online shoppers value promotions and contests through online stores and 42% of them would convert if you provide educational content.

These stats are enough to prove what a significant role social media plays in B2C marketing.

b2c brand - b2c social media marketing

Image via

And, if you’re a B2C brand, the interactive nature of social media makes it easier for you to connect with, engage, and convert your audience into loyal customers.

All you need is an effective B2C social media marketing strategy to market your brand, products, or services. It does matter if you're the business owner of a grocery store or a fitness center, digital marketing is essential.

But how can you develop an effective B2C marketing strategy when you don’t know which channels to choose?

Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).

How to Choose the Right B2C Marketing Channels for Your Brand on Social Media

With over 200 social media channel options, including a dozen mainstream channels, it may seem difficult to determine the right channels for your brand promotions.

However, here are a few questions that can help you identify the right channel for your brand’s digital marketing strategy:

  • Which goals do you want to achieve with your marketing strategy? Do you want to improve brand awareness or generate leads on search engines?
  • Which channels does your target audience use?
  • What kind of content marketing do you plan to create? Will it be more of image-based content, blog post links, or video content?
  • Which channels are your competitors using?
  • How many social media channels can you manage?

Once you have answers to all of the above questions, you will be in a better position to make your choice.

The right social media channels for your brand promotions will mostly depend on the nature of your business and your target audience.

To further help you craft an effective B2C marketing strategy for your brand, I’ve put together a list of seven of the best-performing social media channels.

The Most Effective B2C Marketing Channels for Social Media

B2C marketers are using the leading social media channels to grow their brands. Many of them are trying to cover all of the mainstream channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Let’s take a look at the leading B2C marketing channels, and how they can help your brand grow.

Channel #1: Facebook

Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered accounts. And it now has 2.2 billion monthly active users.

It is the most popular social networking site worldwide as of April 2018, ranked by the highest number of active users.

most popular social networking site - b2c social media marketingImage via Statista

97% of B2C marketers use Facebook as it provides them with a plethora of organic and paid opportunities for B2C marketing.

Need more reasons to invest in a Facebook marketing strategy?

Facebook offers endless engagement opportunities by encouraging your audience to like, share, and comment on your posts.

You can leverage a variety of posting options such as images, videos, blog posts that link back to your website, carousels, polls, and slideshows.

It also allows you to serve highly-targeted ads to people based on specific demographics, location, interests, and more.

Along with improving brand awareness, post reach, and engagement, Facebook provides you with valuable insights on your campaign performance.

This makes it the most-used social channel for paid promotions, with 93% of marketers running paid Facebook campaigns.

If your B2C marketing strategy is to raise brand awareness, build a community, provide customer service, or promote online selling, Facebook can be a great choice for your campaigns.

You can reach larger audiences by running ads on Facebook. It is a wise idea to amplify your top-performing content with paid social ads.

While running paid campaigns requires more time and conscious efforts, you can use platforms such as Brevo(formerly Sendinblue) for better efficacy.

This tool allows you to build the perfect ad, find new leads similar to your current customers, set up your ad parameters, and track campaign performance via search engines.

Channel #2: Twitter

Twitter is all about rapid communication and is aptly termed as a “micro-blogging site.”

65% of marketers leverage Twitter as part of their B2C marketing strategy. Known for tweeting short messages, it is an ideal platform for engaging consumers with a series of tweets, retweets, and hashtags.

How are brands using Twitter?

Many brands use Twitter to provide effective customer care solutions and building customer loyalty.

B2C brands are turning to Twitter to provide their customers with precise recommendations. They also troubleshoot issues, solve grievances, clear refunds, and satisfy consumers with prompt responses.

Twitter is also becoming a prominently-used social media channel during events. Users are finding it fun to engage with others through live-tweeting events such as sports events, political events, and television airings.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections created a major buzz on Twitter, for instance.

Twitter has become one of the most relevant platforms to engage the masses before, during, and after an event. This is why several B2C marketers are using it to drive engagement for their hosted or sponsored events.

Channel #3: Instagram

With over 800 million active users worldwide, Instagram is most popular with teens and young millennials. In fact, 41% of Instagram users are 24 years of age or younger.

teens and young millennials - b2c social media marketingImage via Statista

Which industries benefit the most from Instagram marketing?

As of April 2018, it was found that 14.8% of global active Instagrammers were women between the age group of 18-24 years.

Perhaps that’s why it has proven beneficial for fashion and beauty brands to execute a B2C marketing strategy.

On top of that, Instagram’s visual nature and high user engagement rate make it easier for fashion, beauty, and retail brands to do promotions.

Swedish multinational clothing-retail brand, H&M, showcases their products with impressive images on Instagram.

brand h&m - b2c social media marketingImage via Instagram

While 60% of B2C marketers use Instagram, 11% of marketers reported it to be the most important B2C marketing platform for their business.

Which brands should invest more in Instagram marketing?

If your brand is particularly visual, investing more time and money into Instagram can help you drive huge engagement.

You should also consider leveraging different types of influencer collaborations on Instagram to boost conversions.

Want to make your brand stand out on Instagram?

I’ve got a few actionable tips for you.

  • Post consistently and identify the best times to post on Instagram (times when your audience is most active on the platform).
  • You should only use high-quality images and videos and write engaging captions.
  • If you find it difficult to create fresh content every day, you can repurpose content. You can also repost valuable content created by other brands in your niche.
  • Engage with your followers.
  • Leverage Instagram Stories and hashtags to reach new audiences.

Managing everything manually can be time-consuming but, thankfully, there are tools to help you streamline your B2C marketing strategy on Instagram.

Instagram Marketing Tool: Combin

Combin is an all-in-one Instagram marketing and content planning solution.

Key features

  • Growth tool to attract, analyze, and engage new audiences
  • Scheduler for Instagram Stories and posts planning
  • Multiple account management using a single system
  • Engagement activity automation
  • Useful growth and activity analytics

Cost

  • Starter: Available for free
  • Personal: $15 per month
  • Business: $30/month

Pros

  • Option to check your audience quality
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Some marketers have complained about their support services

combin b2c social media marketingImage via Combin

Tool level

Individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, agencies

Usability

Content marketing management, scheduling, analytics, audience growth

Case study

Trusted by brands such as MBORÒ Clothing and Elizabeth&Nicole

Pro Tip: If you want to streamline and automated tedious tasks, you can use Combin’s automation features to grow your Instagram account.

Channel #4: YouTube

YouTube is the biggest online video platform worldwide with around 1.5 billion users worldwide. It has become a popular video marketing channel with 46% of marketers using it to promote their B2C brands.

YouTube allows you to engage users by posting a variety of content types such as “how-to” videos, advertisement clips, video blogs, short original videos.

There are also reviews, testimonials, and videos focused on educating viewers about a particular topic or product.

When publishing YouTube content, you should make sure that it is original, interesting, funny, or provides some value to the viewers.

Hotels.com cleverly utilizes a humor element in all their ads. In one of their ads, they decided to have fun with the “Skip this Ad” button on YouTube.

While they purchased a non-skippable ad, they allow users to believe that it is a skippable ad. When their viewers clicked “Skip this Ad” button. They’d see everyone in the ad literally skip.

Here’s a demonstration video of what a YouTube viewer would experience while watching their ad.

youtube viewer - b2c social media marketing

Video via YouTube

Want to get more views and subscribers for your YouTube channel?

Check out this amazing YouTube-certified tool.

YouTube Marketing Tool: vidIQ

vidIQ offers a powerful set of tools that can help you reinvent the way you engage with your consumers via videos. It can help you build a loyal audience on YouTube.

Key features

  • Keyword tools to maximize the organic reach of your videos
  • Channel Audit tool to understand what’s working with your content marketing, what’s not working, and what new can you do
  • Competitors tool to track similar content creators and use their successful strategies
  • Compare Views, Trend Alerts, and Most Viewed tools for useful insights
  • Productivity tools to free you up so that you can spend more time on content creation

Cost

  • Basic: Available for free
  • Pro: $7.50/month
  • Boost: $39/month
  • Boost+: $415/month

Pros

  • Long-term video content analysis for valuable insights
  • Identify the best times to post

Cons

  • Advanced SEO functions available with higher-value plans only

vidiq b2c social media marketingImage via vidIQ

Tool level

Professionals, agencies, enterprises

Usability

YouTube content marketing optimization, analytics

Case study

Trusted by brands and individual YouTube creators alike – such as GoDaddy, Donut Media, and Charisma on Command

 

Pro Tip: If you want to grow your YouTube audience organically, you should try it out.

Channel #5: LinkedIn

While LinkedIn is a more appropriate marketing channel for B2B businesses, 44% of marketers are also using it in their B2C marketing strategy.

Can LinkedIn really drive results for B2C brands?

Yes, it can.

In fact, many B2C marketers are already capitalizing on this professional network with great content

One such brand is Starbucks, which efficiently used its LinkedIn company page for selling coffee, building a community, and garnering customer loyalty.

They please their audience with thoughtful, interesting posts and some seasonal promotions too.
starbucks - b2c social media marketingImage via Starbucks

While publishing on LinkedIn, you should remember that the users spending time on this platform are mostly looking for high-quality, professional content.

They are likely to be interested in reading about work, sales, skill development, or enhancing their knowledge.

A direct product pitch or sales announcement won’t fit this space. Instead, you should relate your update, sale, or product to their day-to-day activities, thoughts, or concerns.

LinkedIn can be an ideal B2C channel for your brand if your target audience is a working professional, highly-educated, and 30-55 years of age.

And it is likely to work if you’re offering highly-priced products and services.

You can use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, product/service pages, and blog posts and identify ready-to-buy sales leads.

Yes, there are powerful website tracking software solutions such as Leedfeader that prioritize leads based on what they do on your site. It gives you information about what content and products they’re interested in.

You can approach potential buyers with effective sales pitches and offers catered to meet their specific needs and interests. This will help you drive more conversions and revenue.

Channel #6: Pinterest

Pinterest was the fastest independently launched website to reach 10 million unique monthly visitors and now has over 200 million monthly active users.

Although it receives mixed opinions as a B2C channel for marketing purposes, posting quality content on Pinterest can help you improve your SERP rankings.

Which brands should use Pinterest?

It is an ideal platform for promoting brands related to fashion, art, beauty, cooking, DIY, design, home decor, or travel. Pinterest works wonders for brands with a predominantly female target audience.

Shopping site, Luxury and Vintage Madrid, has 38k+ followers on Pinterest and it receives 9.8 million monthly unique viewers.

luxury and vintage madrid - b2c social media marketingImage via Pinterest


The best way to engage your potential customers on Pinterest is by creating multiple Pinterest boards and sharing valuable content consistently. Make sure that you use a lot of images that link back to your brand website.

Do you need help to effectively manage your Pinterest Boards?

Check out this tool that can help. I’ve listed its key features, pros and cons, and other details.

Pinterest Marketing Tool: SocialPilot

SocialPilot is an all-in-one Pinterest scheduling and automation tool that can help you increase traffic and engagement. You can grow your followers on Pinterest with this tool.

Key features

  • Scheduling tool to share different types of Pins on your Pinterest Boards – images, videos, GIFs
  • The SocialPilot app to create your own images
  • Useful analytics and engagement tracking

Cost

  • Professional: $25/month
  • Small Team: $41.66/month
  • Agency: $83.33/month
  • Enterprise: Customized pricing available on request

Pros

  • Great support services
  • Option to add your brand’s logo on Pins

Cons

  • Its interface could have been better.

socialpilot b2c social media marketingImage via SocialPilot

Tool level

Individuals, startups, agencies, enterprises

Usability

Social media content scheduling, analytics, collaborations

Case study

Trusted by sites like Crazy Egg

Pro Tip: You can use SocialPilot to manage all of your social network accounts from one place.

Channel #7: Snapchat

Snapchat is a relatively new platform with only 8% of B2C marketers using it for brand promotions.

With over 1.66 billion daily active users worldwide, Snapchat is the most popular social site among teenagers and young adults.

Initially launched to share impermanent pictures via private messages, Snapchat now allows you to create a variety of multimedia messages including a photo or a short video. You can edit them with text, filters, or stickers too.

You can create your own Snapchat filters by using pre-designed Geofilters on a platform such as FilterPop. This platform allows you to browse hundreds of designs for birthdays, weddings, businesses, and more, and customize them.

Sounds amazing right?

But that’s not all.

The platform receives a notable daily video user engagement as well.

If you’re a brand that wants to target millennials, this could be the right platform for you.

In fact, some visually strong brands related to fashion, beauty, sportswear, or short and interesting web series are already adopting Snapchat marketing trends in their B2C marketing strategy.

Are you looking for a real-life example?

Here it is:

Netflix launched a Snapchat campaign before airing their “Gilmore Girls” series. The video-streaming site took over 200 coffee shops to recreate the fictional cafe, Luke’s, from their series.

These cafes gave away free coffee in Luke’s branded cups with Snapcodes that allowed users to use a custom filter. This campaign by Netflix reached over 500,000 people, who viewed their custom filter 880,000 times.

snapchat marketing trends - b2c social media marketingImage via OurSocialTimes

Social Media Marketing and Management Made Easy

Most B2C brands use multiple channels to establish their presence on social networking sites.

When you want to build your presence on multiple social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you should look for a unified solution.

Want to discover social media marketing tools to manage all of your social network accounts from one place?

Here’s one such tool for you:

Social Media Management Tool: Crowdfire

Crowdfire is an all-in-one management tool that can help with everything from content marketing curation to scheduling and publishing.

Key features

  • Content discovery to find and share relevant content in your industry
  • Ability to share content from your own website and blog.
  • Content scheduling and automatic publishing
  • Automatic customization of posts for every social network

Cost

  • Free: Free version available
  • Plus: $7.48/month for solopreneurs and small businesses
  • Premium: $37.48/month for medium-sized businesses
  • VIP: $74.98/month for agencies and large businesses

Pros

  • Easy-sharing via Chrome extension
  • Easy to streamline content curation on multiple accounts

Cons

  • Email support for higher-value plans only

crowdfire b2c social media marketingImage via Crowdfire

Tool level

Professionals, agencies, and businesses of all sizes

Usability

Content curation, scheduling, publishing, social media management, analytics

Case study

Trusted by 19 million+ users globally

Pro Tip: If you want to leverage multiple channels for marketing your B2C brand, this tool can be a great choice for you.

FAQs

Q1. What is B2C social media?

A. These are websites and apps that enable B2C business owners to grow relationships with their target audiences, create awareness, and increase conversions.

They also use them to build their reputation, showcase their authority, and gain audience trust.

Q2. Is social media marketing better for B2C or B2B businesses?

A. Social media marketing is better and necessary for business in both B2B and B2C.

However, the key to success lies in knowing your goals and understanding your target audience.

Know what channels they use, the content they prefer to consume, and how best to build relationships with them.

Q3. What are B2C Marketing examples?

A. The following are examples of B2C marketing:

  • Host creative contests.
  • Tell stories with your content.
  • Give time-limited offers or reduced prices.
  • Offer free shipping.
  • Use your website to generate marketing value.
  • Use retargeting for more sales.
  • Use automation tools to personalize communication, send messages at the right times, cross-sell or upsell, etc.

Q4. How to use social media for B2C marketin?

A. The following are tactics you can employ in your B2C marketing:

  • Identify your target market goals and target audience.
  • Create shareable content.
  • Include quality visuals.
  • Focus on providing value to your audience.
  • Include humor, sarcasm, etc., when appropriate.
  • Leverage social ads.
  • Join conversations with relevant trending hashtags, events, or stories.
  • Use user-generated content.
  • Partner with influencers to promote products.
  • Run membership programs.

Q5. Which platform is used the most by B2C marketers as a marketing tool?

A. The platform most B2C marketers use as a marketing tool is Facebook.

This is then followed closely by Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, respectively.

Choose Your B2C Marketing Channel Now!

When it comes to B2C marketing channels for social media, there’s no one size fits all. The right channel for your brand depends upon a multitude of factors.

This could include the nature of your brand, who your potential customers are, demographics, the kind of content you plan to share, etc.

In this post, I covered seven of the major social platforms that B2C marketers are using, and how you can drive the best results using each of them.

Do you consider some other social media channel important for marketing your B2C business? Let me know in the comments below.

8 Comments

  1. Gerardo Mosler says:

    Thanks for introducing different channels to develop an effective social media strategy.

  2. Elissa Jane says:

    Always comprehensive and awesome. This had some super helpful stats for a proposal I’m drafting right now!

  3. Clair Spadafora says:

    Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful article. Thank you for supplying these details.|

  4. Kevin Wilson says:

    Selecting the right social media platform to promote your brand is crucial when it comes to building a brand through social media. Thanks for the great information.

  5. Sampada Deshmukh says:

    Great article!!

    1. Shane Barker says:

      Hi Sampada, I’m glad you liked my post about B2C Social Media Marketing.

  6. Samuel Young says:

    The content of this article is very well explained, some of the points being eye-openers.

    1. Shane Barker says:

      Hi Samuel, thank you! It is really exciting to know that you liked my post about B2C Social Media Marketing.

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