Companies like Starbucks, Disney, Levi’s and Domino’s Pizza are all universally known to be active in social media marketing. Opportunities to reach potential customers for businesses selling directly to consumers (B2C’s) are nearly limitless. Click around on Google or Yahoo for a few minutes, and you’ll find hundreds of success stories for B2C’s.
But what about B2B companies? Is there any reason for B2B’s to consider utilizing social media marketing?
We think there are plenty of good reasons for B2B’s to embrace social media. Here are a few of the ones we think are the most obvious:
1. Contrary to popular belief, B2B’s are using social media just as often as B2C’s. As a matter of fact, a 2010 study by White Horse indicated that 86% of B2C’s utilize social media networking, compared to 82% of B2C’s.
2. Even if a B2B’s particular product or service has a smaller potential market than a typical B2C company, it doesn’t mean social media would be any less effective. Whether your firm is trying to reach 5,000 or five million prospects, the use of social media marketing can influence prospects when it’s time to make a buying decision. How? Read on.
3. One of the most prevalent ways social networking occurs today is through blogs like the one you’re reading right now. Here at Avenue Social, we’re certainly part of the B2B crowd, and we’ve found our blog to be a great way to convey our know-how, our ideas and our capabilities to our customers and prospects. The same can be true for any B2B company. As potential buyers visit B2B websites for information, what they see in the B2B’s blogs can make a significant impact on decision making when it’s time to execute a purchase.
4. Social media is about a whole lot more than fancy promotions and digital age communications. It’s every bit as much about information. As a B2B, expanding your firm’s knowledge is the key to expanding its revenues. And social media networking provides an unprecedented way to collect valuable data and information about a B2B’s customers and its competitors, too.
According to AMR International, B2B spending on social media advertising is forecast to increase 21% every year through 2013. That means that just 36 months from now, B2B’s will have expanded their investments in social media networking by nearly two thirds!
So, is your company marketing to consumers or to other businesses?
Does it really matter?
Too often businesses suffer from the build and they will come myth. We come across lots of business owners with multiple websites but with no understanding of marketing and hence no visitors. You clearly explain the importance of social marketing in the modern workplace, and treating it as a tool to promote your business successfully. Thank you for your thoughtful and well-written article.
Great article. Always know who your competitors are and what they are doing.
Well put. I didn’t realize there were actually more business to business outfits using social media than business to consumer companies.
I am still not sure how a small B2B like the one I work for could ever be convinced to start using Facebook or Twitter. Maybe LinkedIn, though.
I’m with you KellBell, I had no idea either but in moving forward, my company should revisit our marketing strategies.