According to an exclusive survey of B-to-B and B-to-C marketing professionals conducted by BtoB Magazine and the Association of National Advertisers, more B-to-B marketers are getting on the social media bus. Here are some highlights:
- 57% of B-to-B marketers are now using social media channels, compared to just 15% in 2007.
- Among newer media tactics for social networking, blogs top the list.
- 81% of B-to-B marketers are currently using LinkedIn compared to 25% in B-to-C.
- Twitter use ranked highest among B-to-B marketers at 70%.
- Facebook is still the most used social media site (74%). Among the B-to-B marketers, 60% use Facebook.
How B-to-B Marketers are Leveraging Social Media
Tactically speaking, Social Media Marketing (SMM) is primarily a public relations tool, but it is fast becoming very effective for generating new business leads, either directly or through referral. While Facebook is the dominant social networking site for B-to-C marketers, LinkedIn – as the study revealed – is the preferred watering hole among B-to-B marketers.
Another big way in which marketers are leveraging social media is for email list growth. According to the recent ExactTarget 2009 Email List Growth Study, Social Forwarding is projected to be the most frequently adopted new list growth tactic in 2009. Social Forwarding uses ShareThis to make it easy for email subscribers to share email content directly with friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and many other online communities.
Are you LinkedIn?
If you want to learn how to best leverage the networking and lead generating potential of LinkedIn, my friend and social media expert extraordinaire, Jason Baer, of Convince and Convert, has a great presentation on using LinkedIn to build your reputation and generate leads.
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