Social Media Now Plays A Decisive Role In IT Buying Decisions
Earlier this year, a Demand Gen Report study found that social media played a role in at least half of all B2B buying decisions. Now, new research suggests that number is much higher among IT firms.
The study, conducted by Forrester and LinkedIn, included 400 North American IT decision-makers. It found that 73% of these buyers have engaged with IT vendors on a social network.
Perhaps more surprising: 58% of these B2B buyers say they “rely” on social networks to make purchasing decisions, versus 46% that use online periodicals for this purpose.
“IT decision makers are three times more connected with peers and others than the average LinkedIn user,” said Mike Weir, Head of Category Development for LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions Division, in an article published today on Direct Marketing News. “They’re three times more likely to follow companies, four times more likely to follow tech companies.”
We already know that the IT industry is packed with early adopters – that’s certainly true when it comes to marketing automation, for example. Even so, it’s surprising just how quickly IT buyers have moved from using social media in a peripheral capacity to putting it at the center of their decision-making processes.
Other industries probably aren’t as far along in this process. But they’re going to get there, and it may happen more quickly than most B2B marketers expect. That makes it even more important to move past using social media simply as a vehicle for branding or awareness, and turning it into an integral part of your demand-generation strategy.
Is Facebook A Dead End For B2B Marketing?
What’s wrong with Facebook as a B2B marketing platform? A recent study sponsored by LinkedIn offers some insights into that question, and I think it’s right on the money.
The study, “The Mindset Divide,” is available here (behind a mandatory form). But here’s the key finding:
The biggest difference between personal and professional networking is purpose and mindset. We learned that people exhibit two very different mindsets when they engage on social platforms – a personal one to passively “spend time,” and a professional one to actively “invest time.” On personal networks, people are driven to socialize, find entertainment and generally kill time.
There’s also an infographic based on the study (click on the image for a full-size version).
According to the study, people are “more than 3 times as likely to use personal networks for entertainment rather than professional networks.” This trend shows in terms of people’s priorities; for example, they consider receiving “updates from brands” a much higher priority on professional networks than on personal ones.
It’s not hard to read between the lines here: “Personal networks” means Facebook, and “professional networks” means LinkedIn. I think that’s true for 95% of the people reading this post, and it’s certainly true for me.
In fact, it’s true for everyone else I interact with on Facebook. Aside from a few brand “likes” associated with Demand Gen Report or G3 Communications, I don’t like brands, discuss brands, or engage in any other business-related activity on Facebook.
I have befriended some of my professional colleagues on Facebook, but that actually underlines my point: I view these as personal relationships that grew out of business relationships, and that’s how I treat them on Facebook.
Why separate my business and professional social networking? Because it simplifies my life. Because I don’t want to over-share my personal life with business associates or brand marketers. Because I value my privacy. I have lots of reasons why, and so do many of you.
Your mileage may vary, of course. And while I also avoid engaging with B2C brands on Facebook, I realize that some people take a different attitude towards B2C social marketing, which can sometimes blur the line between business and personal life.
By all means, take the study with a grain of salt; LinkedIn does, after all, have a clear agenda to push here. Even so, I wouldn’t be surprised if B2B marketers increasingly look at Facebook as a secondary target, based on some of the trends illustrated in this study – and based on what those trends mean for social marketing ROI.
LinkedIn Revamps Its Company Pages, But What About Analytics?
You may know by now that LinkedIn has rolled out a major update to its Company Pages. There’s a LinkedIn blog post that covers the high points, and TechCrunch also has some good coverage of the changes.
The Company Pages updates, in a nutshell, include:
- A streamlined design that, in my opinion, makes far better use of page space and graphic elements. The pages look far less compressed and cluttered, and that should be good for engagement.
- A new algorithm for sorting and presenting updates that are intended to make them relevant to individual readers, rather than simply presenting in reverse-chron order.
- Access to Company Pages from mobile devices.
- A bigger, landscape-mode photo option for the top of the page (see below).
Early reaction to the changes appears to be positive. But there’s still an issue with LinkedIn that some B2B marketers will find limiting.
In a feature on LinkedIn and lead generation that DGR published earlier this year, some experts said they would really like to see more advanced analytics tools for the platform. There are, of course, analytics tools available on LinkedIn, but they’re mostly focused on soft ROI metrics – not the harder, revenue-oriented metrics that many marketers would like to see.
As far as I know, that hasn’t really changed much. The big issue seems to be LinkedIn’s very conservative approach to its API process, which simply hasn’t given third-party developers as much leeway to create these tools.
Let us know what you think about the new LinkedIn Company Pages design – and what you think about the current state of LinkedIn analytics tools. This is a topic that may be worth revisiting before the end of the year.
-Matthew McKenzie
Infographic: B2B Marketing LinkedIn vs. Facebook?
For many B2B organizations, Facebook is the “elephant in the room” that leaves marketers scratching their heads, while LinkedIn is simply “where it’s at.” This infographic breaks down how marketers utilize each social network to maximize prospect and customer engagement. In this week’s DGR feature, we surveyed marketing automation vendors to find out what tools and functionality are on marketers’ “Facebook wishlist.”
