Social Media in B2B Marketing - Survey Report

Social Media in B2B Marketing Survey Report This survey report explores the rapidly changing landscape of social media in the context of B2B marketing. In cooperation with the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn, the survey generated over 270 responses from B2B marketers that are active in social media programs. It provides a detailed picture of the state of social media in B2B Marketing. SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS  Social media show the biggest increase in use among all B2B marketing tactics over the last 3 years  B2B marketers cite using social media primarily for raising awareness (76 percent) then for lead generation (58 percent)  The single largest roadblock to social media success is the inability to measure results of programs  Most effective social platform for B2B marketers is LinkedIn, followed by Twitter and then blogs This survey was conducted in As we take a closer look at the survey results, keep in mind that cooperation with the B2B Technology Marketing answers which offer multiple selections do not always add up to Community on LinkedIn. 100 percent. Now, on to the numbers…

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report What B2B Marketing Tactics Are Up, Down, Flat? Before we dive into social media, let’s look at the bigger picture of the B2B marketing mix that social media comprises. What activities are marketing teams doing more/less than 3 years ago? Marketing tactics that are trending up - Social media shows the biggest increase among marketing tactics over the last 3 years. 81 percent of respondents say that they are doing more of it (not surprising considering social media use in B2B was nascent 3 years ago). The next big jump is in content creation – 68 percent of respondents have increased this tactic in their B2B marketing mix. 2

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report This supports the observation that companies are increasingly using content marketing to influence and guide prospects through the buying cycle. Website activity is also up, with 56 percent of people using it more aggressively than 3 years ago. Email marketing is slightly up - likely a reflection of the increasing adoption of marketing automation platforms that heavily rely on email to communicate targeted, customized, and behavior driven messages. Marketing tactics that are trending down - Now let's look at the activities that are down over the last 3 years. A usual suspect, direct mailings, is used less by 55 percent of the people who responded to the survey. This is not surprising, though, considering the often low response rates and difficulties tracking conversions, in addition to the comparatively higher cost of direct mail. Same with print advertising, which is used less by 62 percent of respondents. Marketing tactics that are flat - A couple of tactics have maintained their share in the marketing mix over the years. Events and Webinars, for example, are still executed at about the same level as 3 years ago by 50 percent of the marketers polled in the survey (although Webinars are trending up, and so is online advertising with 42 percent of respondents keeping it a about the same level and 37 percent increasing investment compared to three years ago). 3

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report Social Media Engagement The purpose of this question is to identify the level of engagement, ranging from not actively engaged (13 percent) to extensive use of social media (20 percent). The plurality of responses indicated a “Basic social presence but no significant marketing” (45 percent). This suggests that B2B marketers are still testing the waters before making more significant investments in social media marketing. 4

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report Social Media Objectives One of the first questions any social media initiative needs to answer is the one about its purpose and objectives. Not surprisingly, social media objectives vary widely. Building awareness took the top spot with 76 percent, followed by lead generation (58 percent), listening to prospects and customers (52 percent) and community building (48 percent). 5

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report Roadblocks to Social Media Success The purpose of this question is to identify some of the most critical roadblocks to adoption of social media. The biggest problem appears to be measuring the results of social media programs (55 percent). Not surprising considering that the proper metrics and goals associated with social media are still evolving. The challenge of measuring results was followed by identifying where to participate in terms of platforms, forums, blogs, etc (47 percent). Finding out who the communities and influencers are that social media managers need to connect with and keep track of was the third most mentioned challenge with 45 percent. 40 percent of survey participants selected coordination of social media activities as a challenge, and 35 percent found that keeping track of conversations is an issue. 6

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report Measuring Social Media Effectiveness Here is another interesting result from the B2B social media survey. Somewhat surprisingly, a plurality of B2B marketers (43 percent) says they don't have ANY metrics in place for measuring social media effectiveness. Something tells me that B2B marketers will get away with this only for a short time until investment in social media comes under increased scrutiny. On the other hand, social media is still fairly new and B2B marketers are still experimenting trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Once best practices emerge, metrics to measure the effectiveness will be more defined as well. Many B2B marketers are using basic metrics around social media activity (number of posts, tweets, and visits), followership (number of fans, followers, members,) and engagement (re-tweets, comments, downloads) are equally popular with 35 percent of B2B marketers. 7

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report How do B2B marketers rate the actual effectiveness of their social media programs? Most marketers find their social media programs to be somewhat effective (44 percent), 24 percent characterize their efforts as ineffective, followed by 20 percent who are not sure (which points again to challenges in measuring results). And only a minority of respondents (13 percent) says that their social media programs are effective. 8

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report What social media tools do you use for what purpose? When speaking with B2B marketers about social media, one of the most frequently asked question is “What tools do you use?” So we included a short list of popular social media tools in our survey get a better understanding for the application of these tools for specific purposes. Here are the top selections by category:  Listening to social conversations: TweetDeck, Google Analytics, Radian6, and Social Mention.  Managing conversations: TweetDeck, HootSuite,  Publishing content: Bitly, TweetDeck, HootSuite  Managing leads: Eloqua, Marketo  Measuring results: Google Analytics, Bitly, Eloqua 9

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report Most Effective Social Media and Communication Platforms Now let’s take a closer look at social media platforms. What platforms help B2B marketers achieve their social media goals, which ones don’t? Among “traditional” social media platforms, LinkedIn takes the top spot in overall responses and level of effectiveness, followed by Twitter and blogs in overall responses. Blogs are considered more effective than Twitter. Other platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Social bookmarking services (such as DiggIt). 10

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report We hope you enjoyed this social media report. Feel free to share the report with your friends and colleagues. About the B2B Technology Marketing Community With over 16,000 members, the B2B Technology Marketing Community is the single largest LinkedIn group exclusively focused on B2B technology marketing. This group is for marketing professionals in B2B high-tech industries to enable networking, sharing of ideas, best practices and opportunities. Join the B2B Technology Marketing Community  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=43707 11

Social Media in B2B Marketing – Survey Report About the Author Holger Schulze is the author of the syndicated blog Everything Technology Marketing, an industry resource dedicated to B2B marketing in software and high-tech markets. The blog is focused on creating engaging discussions on B2B technology marketing trends, ideas, and best practices. Holger manages multiple large online communities such as the B2B Technology Marketing Community and the Information Security Community, together reaching over 100,000 people. Holger Schulze serves as Director of Worldwide Marketing for information security vendor SafeNet. Contact Information Email: hhschulze@gmail.com Follow Holger on Twitter: http://twitter.com/holgerschulze Technology Marketing Blog: http://everythingtechnologymarketing.blogspot.com 12

http://www.doschu.com	42
http://www.crm-guidebooks.com	17
http://www.marqui.com	2
http://www.slideshare.net	1
http://paper.li	1
http://transition-partner.org	1
http://twitter.com	1

Social Media in B2B Marketing - Survey Report

by Holger Schulze on Nov 16, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

7 Embeds 65

Statistics

Social Media in B2B Marketing - Survey Report — Document Transcript