posted by Accounts
While consumer-facing companies have been getting the bulk of the social media limelight, business to business (B2B) companies have been slowly testing the social waters and are expected to soon join their predecessors.
According to studies conducted by Outsell and Forrester Research, B2B spending on social media marketing is expected to increase 43 percent from 2009 to 2010 and will quintuple in the next four years. This is part of an overall trend of increased B2B interactive marketing budgets, which are anticipated to grow to $51.5 billion this year.
We believe there are many factors influencing B2B companies to use social media as a significant marketing option:
1. Website traffic
More companies are investing in their websites and want to see ROI through additional traffic. Social media is a powerful method to drive traffic to B2B websites by enhancing their search rankings with more content and inbound links.
2. Customer engagement
All types of companies are learning to engage current and potential clients in the most effective places. Primary social media channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and blogs are options for B2B companies, depending on their audience.
3. Product and service development
More companies, both B2C and B2B, are using the online world as their never-ending virtual focus groups.
4. Employee recruitment
As hiring starts to pick up in different sectors, B2B companies are keeping costs down and reaching more potential employees through social networks.
5. Cost
As the cost of many offline marketing options continues to increase, social media marketing offers an attractive alternative. Outside of personnel time, there is no cost to use platforms such as YouTube, LinkedIn or Twitter. Of course, executives must weigh how much time can and should be dedicated to these efforts.
Be sure to perform due diligence before beginning to market your company through social media. The most important consideration is who you want to reach and where to engage them. Next, begin brainstorming and creating relevant content for your audience.
After those initial stages, determine who would be the key users within your company and if training is required. Consider developing a preliminary social media plan that these key users can use as they begin to create social media properties for your company. Later down the road, you should think about a social media policy for your employees and if you want to implement these policies during and after work hours.
Success within the social media space does not happen overnight and requires sustained effort. The sooner you’re engaged, the better you will be able to leverage this medium.
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