You’re smart, savvy, and you know your business like the back of your hand. So, why does it seem like no matter how much social media marketing you do, you’re only reaching the same, small circle of people? The answer is quite simple: Despite your best intentions, you might be doing everything wrong.

It’s not your fault. Sometime over the last few years, social media grew up. And it’s constantly evolving. While B2B marketers have finally taken the leap into social media, many are still struggling to adapt to the ever-changing rules of engagement.

With these four best practices, you can breathe new life into your strategy and reap the benefits of social media marketing.

1. Analyze social media.

While you don’t have to be active on every single network, your social sites should reflect your brand and show that you’re paying attention. The same strategy may not work across all platforms.

Conduct some audits, so you’re not just wading blindly:

• How is your social media presence in the various platforms: LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc.?
• How many people do your posts reach? What links do your followers like best?
• What are your goals? … and what metrics are you using to track them?
• What’s trending with your target audience across social networks?

Having answers to these questions will provide you with sufficient leverage as you plan your moves.

2. Start creating killer content.

Social media only provides the platform. What will sell your idea, product, or service is the content you deliver. As you strategize your content, consider the following:

• What keywords will help boost your search ranking?
• What content types will you be using: videos, infographics, textual content, etc.? What structure will it take?
• How frequently will you feed your audience with content?
• What will your editorial calendar look like ... and who will manage it?

Understand what your audience really wants and make sure your content hits the mark at the right time.

3. Constantly engage your audience.

Just because you’ve built it doesn’t mean they’ll come. Social media has provided inbound marketers with a very awesome opportunity to engage an audience. But in order to be successful, dedicated resources are needed to work daily on social media efforts. Whatever scheme you employ in your bid to improve conversion rates, ensure that you maintain audience engagement consistently. Make your audience feel like they own the process. Respond promptly to their queries and suggestions. This will do wonders in building trust with your current and potential brand advocates.

4. Create a balance between insourcing and outsourcing for B2B social media marketing services.

Analyze the pros and cons of working alone or with your in-house team versus working with a full-service marketing agency. Working alone will make you feel more independent. However, you risk being stagnant for a very long time. While outsourcing will come in at a fee, you stand to benefit a lot. A full-service marketing agency will help you:

• Establish your company's presence on social media networks.
• Assess your current social media strategies/efforts.
• Prepare a social media strategy for driving awareness, engagements, and leads.
• Track and measure engagements.
• Link website pages to social media properties.
• Develop content and posts (on the client's pages, industry pages, and group forums).
• Identify relevant domains for backlinking.
• Manage your editorial calendar.
• Monitor and respond daily to comments ... and route difficult topics/comments to subject matter experts (SMEs).
• Target pay-per-click ads on social networks.