Is social sharing needed for every page of a B2B website?

Question

I know this question has been asked previously. There are some more details in my case.

I work with a technology company that makes software for insurance. The products are all B2B. We have social share buttons - LinkedIn and Twitter - on product pages and have seen no one using them so far. Plus, we have a fledgling following on the social media channels.

We are redesigning the website. Considering the facts above, should we include social sharing?

Answer 1

A social share button on every page seems counterintuitive. Social sharing is a very one sided street, especially on a static page. What businesses care about is social engagement. They, just like consumers, want to know who they are in business with. One way to tap into that desire is to tell your company's story through social media.

This means you create content that is relevant, thought provoking, and helpful; worth sharing. A good place to put these social sharing buttons would therefore be your company's blog. Then consider your audience and what kind of sites they are most likely to submit your content to. You want to limit the amount of noise those share buttons cause; highlight the buttons that your readers are most likely to push. Once you create a reason for businesses to share, only then you'll start seeing an increases in share button use.

Answer 2

Absolutely not

Your current observations show that:

Given the nature of your site, 99% of the pages will likely never be shared, so the sharing widget that shows "0 likes, 0 tweets, etc" becomes a monument to how unshared (and unsharable?) your content is.

I have experienced this exact same scenario with a large B2B site I managed.

There are two places that might warrant the inclusion of a sharing widget:

1. The Homepage - assuming you have a convenient location on the page. This gives the rare user who wants to share somewhere to share from, and keeps the marketing department happy.
2. Pages that perform well in organic search - if product pages do well from an SEO perspective, it those pages are objectively valuable (assuming your SEO practices are actually organic and white-hat), so if any pages on your site are worth sharing, and therefore worth having a sharing widget, it's these.

Otherwise, save the space and cut down the visual distraction by leaving this UI element out.