46% of B2B Marketers View Social Media Engagement as Irrelevant

Do you work for a B2B company and believe social media engagement doesn't make sense for your company ?  Well, you're not alone.  According to a recent report from digital marketing agency White Horse , 46% of B2B marketers surveyed indicated they thought social media was irrelevant to their company , compared to 12% of B2C respondents.

Although the study showed that comparable numbers of B2B and B2C marketers were not doing any social marketing at all, B2B marketers were much more likely to admit they had social media accounts but were doing nothing with them from a marketing standpoint.

Furthermore, the study revealed that one-third of B2B marketers feel there is a low level of executive interest in social media involvement.  This explains a lot.  If you're a marketer and your CEO isn't convinced social media is worth the time and effort, you've got a major roadblock to overcome if you want to start incorporating social media initiatives into your marketing mix.

We've heard this excuse before to explain a lack of social media adoption in the B2B space, and it's understandable that it's much easier for B2C companies to perceive value in social media engagement.  

Still, while social media adoption is perceived to make more sense in the B2C sector, it's hard to deny the value in it for B2Bs, too.  Social media can be a powerful lead generation tool, and there have been a lot of social media marketing success stories and case studies showing how B2Bs are excelling through their participation in social platforms.  These businesses are experiencing significant ROI from their efforts, proving that social media does make sense for B2B companies.

So, why should you care about this data?

If you're reading this blog, you probably have some interest in helping your company also see the light about the benefits of social media and inbound marketing if it hasn't already.  If it were me, I'd see a huge opportunity in the fact that almost half of B2B marketers view social media irrelevant -- the opportunity to take charge and become a pioneer of and ultimately a leader in social media in my industry. 

So, what can you do to help encourage your boss to seek greener pastures with social media engagement?  Arm yourself with data , whether it be in the form of case studies, charts , graphs, statistics , or whatever else you can get your hands on that will help you make your case and illustrate the benefits of B2B social media activities.  There's a ton of advice out there to help you come up with a plan , so take advantage of it.  Good luck!

Have you been successful in convincing management to adopt social media practices? Let us know how you did it!  

Free Download: Marketing Data: 50+ Marketing Charts and Graphs

HubSpot has complied over 50 marketing charts and graphs on topics including Lead Generation, Blogging and Social Media, Marketing Budgets, Twitter and Facebook Download the ebook now! to have access to these charts for use in your own presentations