Sep 11
22
The Stats Behind B2B Social Media Marketing
It is a widespread perception that social media for B2B is significantly different than that of B2C. I wanted to do a little research to determine if the two were really that different. As a firm believer in social media for B2B, I was searching for evidence that both were more similar than different.
Jay Baer, blog author of Convince and Convert, blogged about a similar topic. Below you will find information from his blog:
According to the State of Social Media Marketing Report which was published by MarketingProfs, B2C and B2B social marketing efforts are more similar than different. The report exhibits that B2C and B2B marketers are using the same channels at close to the same rates. Baer suggests the difference lies in how they are utilizing the social channels, not in what channels they are using.
The other main point Baer draws from the data is that budget is not actually a factor. According to the MarketingProfs’ report, the difference amongst those investing millions on social media to those spending very little is incredibly small. The presence on the leading social media sites is almost identical.
Here are some compelling stats from Social Media B2B:
- More than half (53.5%) of (B2B and B2C) marketers surveyed said they currently use social media as part of their marketing strategy. This is up from 2009, when 45.0% of marketers said they used social media for marketing.
- 86% of B2B firms are using social, compared to 82% of B2C.
- B2B advertising budgets on social media and lead generation sites is forecast to grow at an annualized rate of 21% and 17% respectively to 2013.
- B2B firms fight much more internal criticism than B2C firms. Internal “perceived irrelevance” is common in almost half of B2B firms, the same can be said of only 12% of B2C firms.
Although these figures point out that B2B’s social media presence is curretnly rising they also indicate that it will be a hard road ahead for those doing work internally at B2B firms. Having to convince other expansion stage team members that your influence marketing/inbound marketing strategy is a priority will be far tougher at a B2B than a B2C.
What are the best ways to prove relevance? Facts. Work on tracking the development of various social initiatives. Here are some tips:
- Look at the data. How many followers do you have? How many people are studying your blogs or case studies? Is this number increasing over time? Is your SEO improving over time?
- Keep track of success stories. Have you received emails from clients telling you how valuable they find your blogs? Save them! Are some of your prospects regularly engaging with you on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook? Document it! These success stories will be valuable to you when having conversations about the effect of your initiatives.
