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Study: LinkedIn Is More Effective for B2B Companies

 

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The latest findings from HubSpot's 2011 State of Inbound Marketing report show that the effectiveness of particular social media channels varies according to the type of business.

The study surveyed over 600 professionals knowledgeable about their company's marketing strategy. Participants were asked to indicate if their business had acquired a customer from a lead generated by Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or the company blog. The results showed that while both B2B and B2C companies are able to acquire customers through any of the four channels surveyed, Facebook is clearly more effective for B2C businesses and LinkedIn is clearly more effective for B2B businesses.

Both business types found similar and relatively high success with customer acquisition through a company blog.

Customer Acq B2B B2C resized 600

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comments Comments

Posted by Melissa Miller on Tue, Mar 08, 2011 @ 10:30 AM

COMMENTS

Did the study indicate whether or not the leads were from paid advertisements or simply active participation on the sites?

posted on Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 11:08 AM by Kristina Eastham

Interesting chart,I learnt that on average blog works the best for both B2B and B2C :)

posted on Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 11:55 AM by Cherry Rahtu

GlobalSpec just came out with the results of a survey of industrial users of social media. It reinforces the point that LinkedIn is the best channel. I can send a copy of the report to anyone who wants it.

posted on Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 4:52 PM by Jim Taylor, CPE, CPMM

This study appears to have a few significant flaws. For example, it looks like the data is entirely self-reported by people who are "knowledgeable about their company's marketing strategy." This is a very ambiguous group of people with a variety of layers in it. While logic tells me that LinkedIn is better for B2B, I would like more robust scientific data to support that assumption. Can I review the research methodology?

posted on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 9:26 AM by Gardner Lepp

GlobalSpec just came out with a study showing the same thing for industrial buyers.

posted on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 12:25 PM by Jim Taylor, CPE, CPMM

I have found the same result for myself and my clients at JennerSolve. LinkedIn is a professional connection-based site and therefore lends itself to marketing to other businesses much better than other avenues.

posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 12:12 PM by Lisa Bauman

LinkedIn is definately the way to go for B2B. We tried all options, but people only really engaged on LinkedIn... Makes sense really though.

posted on Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 6:14 PM by Ralph Vugts

Finally! Thank you. Something that actually makes sense! I definitely agree that Linkedin is best for B2B customers. 
 
Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc, are just different online channels; just as print, tv, radio, etc are for traditional marketing. We have to be selective to be effective.  
 
The key questions has been and will always be what is the business objective, and who are the customers.

posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 9:19 PM by Ivy Clark

Comments have been closed for this article.