Business-to-business companies are relatively new at embracing social media. E-Marketer Digital Intelligence cites a Business.com survey, where 73% of B2B respondents using social media had less than two years experience with the tools. However spending forecasts are changing.
“B2B participation in social media marketing is steadily increasing, and marketers are beginning to see opportunities to generate quality leads and position themselves as thought leaders in their industries,” said eMarketer’s Evelyn Jung.
Other market indicators estimates that marketing on social networks will grow 43.3% in 2010 for B2B. E-Marketer also cites Forrester’s prediction that “B2B firms will spend $54 million on social media marketing in 2014, up from just $11 million in 2009.”
While business will continue to spend for online advertising, eMarketer reports that “when companies budget for social media marketing in 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of their expenses will go toward other initiatives, such as creating and maintaining a branded profile page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the effect of a social network presence on brand health and sales.”
Last year B2B spent the bulk of its funding for social media on customer communities, followed by podcasts and blogs. These returned the most ROI, since B2B executives were more concerned with sharing more relevant product or service information with their customers.
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