Building brand reputation and awareness are the most effective uses of social media for B2Bs, according to a new data just released byMarketing Sherpa and available free on their site during October 2010.
The research found 92% respondents thought social media was very effective or somewhat effective at influencing B2B brand reputation, and 91% consider it very effective or somewhat effective at increasing B2B brand awareness.
Slightly behind, 87% of respondents thought social media was very or somewhat effective at improving B2B search engine rankings and increasing B2B website traffic respectively.
Interestingly B2B firms are ahead of B2Cs in the uptake of blogs, discussion group participation, online news release distribution and membership of professional social networks, according to Marketing Sherpa’s 2009- 2010 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.
“It’s not surprising when you look at the B2B marketing to sales process and its reliance on trusted relationships. After all the primary purpose of social media is to provide the means for interactions between people to build on those relationships,” says the report.
At yourBusinessChannel.com we couldn’t agree more.