Social Media for B2B

Business to business social media marketing is gaining rapid popularity, as businesses gain more savvy in how they can use social media to develop their companies. Social media for B2B marketing is still in its infancy as several B2B businesses are still lagging behind and not getting into the stream of b2b social media marketing.

The information highway of the internet, is the mode of transport for most businesses in this generation and b2b social media marketing connecting to various social networks, play a great part in how business is being conducted today. The social media is a congregating place for people, where there are people conversation and exchange of information takes place, this offers a fertile ground for business information to be sown and to grow.

Business to business social media marketing involves connecting with people in these queues, engaging in conversations and passing on valuable information about businesses. This allow leads to be generated through the social media and other businesses carrying like products will want to visit that particular website. If the product or service is informational, attractive enough or meet their customers need, these businesses will become interested in the website.

Unfortunately there are still some businesses that operate in a 1990?s mode, where they use the conventional forms of advertising and wait for clientele to come to them. Many to date have not even tried social media for B2B marketing, yet wonder why their competitors seem to have gained an edge on them in the marketplace. Below are some statistics to show business 2 business social media marketing effectiveness in the business arena.

Effectiveness of Social media for B2B Marketing

Eloqua a social media software company conducted a research of over 500 B2B businesses. They measured the approach of B2B social media marketing efforts and discovered the following:

Formerly approximately 36% of B2B marketers did not use social media, however, that percentage has changed recently, to reflect that a soaring 93% are involved in business to business social media marketing. This leaves only 7% unaccounted for, which shows a positive flow in the direction of companies using social media for B2B marketing.

Within the organization of the companies that use social media, however, there is still need for the formal structure of a group or person responsible for publishing contents to social media. Their statistics are as follows:
26% claims their Public Relations or Communications department has control.
11% pass the responsibility to their website manager.
23% share the responsibility between various departments.

When B2B social media marketing network preferences was measured, Facebook came out on top, with 80%, closely followed by Twitter having 78% and Linkedin came in at third place with 51%.
Despite not having a formal plan in place for marketing using social media, business to business social media marketing has gained considerable footing for users in the market place according to Eloqua, as shown in the results below:
56% of B2B marketers acquire new business partnerships through social media connections

Approximately 60% B2B marketers reported an increase in ranking from social media efforts

69% B2B marketers show ability to gather greater insight for social media

53% of B2B marketers found social media helpful to them in creating loyal fans.

It is significant at the time this study was conducted, that acquiring new business partners and developing loyal fans, scored the lowest. These are the two most important aspects in developing business 2 business social media marketing for these companies. The methodology in publishing information on the social media may be partially responsible for this.

B2B companies carry products and services which are transferred to customers. Companies must develop strategies for publishing content, that will engage and attract the attention of potential business partners and fans and initiate conversations about their products and services that will be carried across the web. This will result in generating leads, which may lead to conversion into paying clients thus boosting business.

This common strategy used online in the marketplace between businesses and shoppers, can be modified to fit business to business social media marketing. The above statistics prove that it works, what is lacking is, capitalizing on the relationships that exists on social media and let that be the current, which will propel the dialogue of the products and services available along to the ears and sight, of the desired target audiences.

Strategies to Improve B2B Social Media marketing
Unlike retail marketing where the customer buys from an emotional standpoint, B2B marketing is based on logic. The key components of the business industry involves:

A good understanding where they stand among competitors in the market

What they do best and their methodology

Credibility and sustaining a good reputation

Solution delivery branding strategy

Effective measuring of B2B social media performance

B2B marketing steers the process of purchasing with the end result to be, time saving and cost-effective, therefore B2B transactions are well thought out. The purchase is never emotional, but made only after careful considerations are given, that the product or service will do what is says it will and yield customer satisfaction for the business doing the purchase.

Social media for B2B marketing should target these areas giving a clear picture of the product or service. Special focus should be given on the unique features, its ease of use as a time saver, affordability for customers and value in return on investment (ROI), for business.

Social networks thrive on useful information which can be passed on in diverse conversations across the web. Business to business social media marketing must capitalize on this. One of the areas most overlooked is the buyer for the organization and the amount of autonomy they are given to make a purchase. In most cases they collect information about products and prices, return it to a board which makes the final decision whether to purchase or not.

Social media for B2B marketing can use this in several ways, the easiest of which are the use of white papers, guidelines and content marketing. The more information available on the social networks whether in a conversation or by posting, the more visibility will be given the business to other companies carrying like products. This will result in more leads being generated, that can lead to conversion into new business partnerships.

In today?s world of commerce, vast amounts of marketing are leaving conventional marketplaces for the wider field of the World Wide Web. The world has suddenly become smaller as with just the flick of a wrist, conversations can begin with ?friends? spanning many nations across the globe. These conversations are critical as they are informational in nature about everything.

Social networks thrive on sharing information. They also convey liking or not liking and this could be levied at someone, some comment or about a B2B company. Social media for B2B companies must realize the importance of this information driven highway and ensure what they publish, like an arrow will head straight to the targeted businesses and begin to do the work of improving ranking and relationships of their B2B market.

Source: http://wappow.com/b2b-social-media/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=b2b-social-media

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