As 2016 comes to a close, you’re probably already having conversations with your team about how you are going to revamp your marketing and sales initiatives to surpass goals, meet quotas and drive pipeline in the new year.

As a Millennial, I’ve been an advocate of social media since the early days of MySpace. Peer recommendations continue to be a major selling point in both B2B and B2C communities, and I can’t help but be fascinated with the role social media marketing plays in today’s 140-character limit world.

I attended Dreamforce last week, Salesforce’s annual marketer takeover of the city of San Francisco, and I know two things:

Whether it’s clear as day or buried deep down in your buyer’s subconscious, one thing is for certain: your actions influenced him (or her) to buy. This influence is happening every day within the B2B marketplace, but only the most progressive of B2B organizations are tapping into it to enhance their marketing campaigns and sales conversations.

In today’s B2B marketplace, creativity and contextual information through the right channels — at the right time — are what keep brands top of mind within their target audiences. This can be tough when you have a limited budget or a small marketing team. However, these challenges won’t stop the most creative marketing teams from getting their message heard; the efforts of YouEarnedIt are proof of that.

Industry experts gathered in New York City recently for LeadsCon, and the B2B track touched on many areas of B2B marketing, including ABM and automation. Sessions showcased what marketers are doing right — but also explored what they may be doing wrong. Two issues stood out to me during my time there. Are you making these mistakes?

Content is a crucial element to helping B2B buyers make purchasing decisions. The most effective content provides education and engages buyers throughout the customer life cycle.

Coca-Cola recently hit a marketing home run when pop artist Selena Gomez posted a picture of herself on Instagram holding the company’s iconic glass bottle. The photo became the most-liked of all time on the social media site, earning a whopping 5.1 million likes (as of Aug. 1).

Successful B2B marketers are able to maximize the shelf life of their content — oftentimes turning a single piece of content into multiple assets to fuel marketing campaigns. Magnetic did just that by formulating a research report designed to gauge how retailers are trying to personalize their offers, marketing campaigns and overall outreach.

With Microsoft spending a whopping $26.2 billion to purchase LinkedIn, the company is positioning itself with the likes of Salesforce to offer businesses a connected community and technology stack. However, thought leaders in the space are hesitant to call the purchase a win or a loss — It ultimately depends on how Microsoft intends to incorporate LinkedIn into its current offerings. We asked five industry experts how Microsoft’s acquisition of…