Social Media Marketing in B2B vs. B2C, what’s the dif?
As companies and internal marketing departments evolve their social media strategies and refine their tactics, research is becoming available to shed light on these efforts.
One area of particular focus has been the potentially different impact that social media has on B2B marketers in relation to their B2C brethren. In a recent study titled “2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” Mark Stelzner asked marketers how they’re using social media, and more than 1,900 business-to-business (B2B) marketers shared their insights.
Here are some highlights:
• Of the B2B marketers who took this year’s survey, over 93% use social media to market their businesses. While that’s slightly below their consumer-focused brethren (95.2%), there’s been a significant increase since the 2010 survey when only 88% of B2B marketers responded affirmatively.
• Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media (compared to 45% of B2C marketers)
• Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts (compared to 50% of B2C marketers)
• B2B marketers are better able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts (nearly 69% vs. 60% of B2C marketers)
• The one area where B2B marketers significantly lag behind their B2C counterparts is in developing a loyal fan base. 63% of B2C marketers found social media helped them develop loyal fans, compared to only 53% of B2B marketers.
For more information on the report click here.
For more mind blowing research and insight about social media and mobile marketing, follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mikerabinovici or email me at michael at ar-com.com