Less Than 10 Percent of B2B Companies Are Extensively Leveraging Social Media

We know that B2B decision makers are active on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Unfortunately, though, it appears that most B2B companies are missing out on valuable opportunities to connect with these prospects and customers across today’s social media platforms.

After polling more than 200 B2B marketing executives, the management consulting firm Accenture found that the majority of them (65 percent) believe social media is important to their companies’ business. But, as remarkable as it sounds, only a mere eight percent of those surveyed said their companies are extensively leveraging social media networks for their businesses.

The research also revealed that:

• Among these survey respondents, engagement on social media is lukewarm. Just five percent of those polled formally integrate social media with their other customer and marketing initiatives. More than one-quarter (26 percent) said they were only slightly engaged or not engaged at all with the medium.
• Many remain uncertain about their social media efforts. Just 24 percent of respondents in companies that had invested in social media felt very confident about their company’s social media investment, while 19 percent had no confidence in those investments at all. One-fifth (23 percent) said their companies’ social media initiatives were delayed because their CEO was not convinced that there would be long-term success in using the medium.
• Social media ROI remains enigmatic. Only 11 percent of the marketing executives surveyed said their companies currently have systems in place to measure and track their social media ROI.  However, more than one-third (35 percent) of marketing executives surveyed did recognize improvements in measurement as a factor in helping them be more effective users of social media.
• Drivers for social media activity are varied. The motivating factors for investing in social media are: to increase engagement and positive customer experiences (60 percent), influence brand reputation (59 percent), create new revenue opportunities (52 percent), respond to customer demand (40 percent), reduce costs (25 percent) and keep up with what competitors are doing (24 percent).

These results contradict other surveys which suggested that B2B marketers are embracing social media. Even in these earlier studies, though, researchers detected the same lack of confidence and confusion about ROI.  B2B marketers appear to recognize the potential of social media; they’re just unsure how to effectively harness it. Clearly, automation, integration, tracking and analysis are key. Social media is a tool. Its value won’t be fully realized until it’s integrated into a comprehensive B2B marketing strategy.

“Organizations should adopt a holistic social media strategy that integrates digital marketing, cloud technologies and insight-driven analytics capabilities, as well as new metrics, governance models and organizational structures,” said Kevin Quiring, managing director, Customer Relationship Management, North America. “Each component is a vital piece of the social media puzzle and a highly-skilled talent pool is needed to take advantage of those integrated capabilities.”

The full report, Making Social Media Pay: Rethinking Social Media’s Potential to Bolster B2B Interactions, Customer Loyalty, Revenues and Brand Reputation, is available here.