Businesses Are Using Social Media – What is Your Social Media Strategy?

Posted • July 28, 2010 • 3 Comments

We are in the B2B Social Media Era, Either Board the Social Media Train or Get Left at the Station

If you are in business today you need a social media strategy. You know like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter…

It is no longer possible to use the excuse that your business is business to business so you don’t need to participate in social media.

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Answers, Blogs…, the B2B world has come of age. Regardless of whether your business is B2B or B2C social media is a viable marketing strategy today!

In a recently released B2B Social Media Benchmarking study the writing has been left on the station wall. Businesses are using social media and they are using it at a very high rate. If you don’t have your social media marketing strategy in place yet it is time to get on board.

The 2009 B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study from Business.com gives us some great insight into the use of social media for businesses today. For those of you who really like the numbers here are some that should get things rolling.

The top 5 social media resources as the most popular for business information:

• 69.1% – Attend webinars or listen to podcasts
• 62.2% – Read user ratings & reviews for business products or services
• 62.1% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 55.1% – Visit company blogs
• 54.5% – Conduct searches for information on social media sites

This information can be broken down to company size and the comparison is very interesting.

Small Businesses less than 100 employees:

• 67% – Attend webinars or listen to podcasts
• 63% – Read user ratings & reviews for business products or services
• 61% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 54% – Visit company blogs
• 54% – Conduct searches for information on social media sites
• 34% – Subscribe to RSS feeds of business-related news of information sites
• 28% – Use Twitter to find or request business-related information
• 27% – Save business-related links on social bookmarking sites

Medium to Large Businesses 100+ employees:

• 84% – Attend webinars or listen to podcasts
• 70% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 70% – Read user ratings & reviews for business products or services
• 66% – Conduct searches for information on social media sites
• 64% – Visit company blogs
• 62.1% – Visit company or product profile pages on social media sites
• 48% – Subscribe to RSS feeds of business-related news of information sites
• 46% – Use Twitter to find or request business-related information
• 36% – Save business-related links on social bookmarking sites

In all but one case – reading user ratings and reviews for business products or services – a higher percentage of mid- to large-sized company respondents reported utilizing a given social media resource than did small business respondents. The fact that small business respondents show more active interest in business product/service ratings and reviews makes sense – small businesses typically lack the more formalized purchasing process found in mid- to large-sized companies, and these ratings and reviews provide additional, useful information to support the purchasing decision process.

When it comes to active participation on social media web sites, such as participating in online business communities or forums, or asking questions on Q&A sites like Yahoo! Answers or LinkedIn Answers, there were no significant differences between small company and mid- to large-sized company respondents.

When it comes to online social community participation there seems to be very little difference when it comes to company size.

Small Businesses less than 100 employees:

• 52% – Participate in online business communities or forums
• 50% – Ask questions on Q&A sites (e.g.LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers…)
• 29% – Participate in discussions on 3rd party sites

Medium to Large Businesses 100+ employees:

• 52% – Participate in online business communities or forums
• 46% – Ask questions on Q&A sites (e.g.LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers…)
• 32% – Participate in discussions on 3rd party sites

If you are in business are you active on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Answers? Do you have a blog? If not why not? We are in the digital age changes are only a click away. Just jump aboard this “social media train” it can be fun, informative, and rewarding. If you aren’t on any train yet try LinkedIn.

Late,
Gary Pool SEO

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