Mediaboss Marketing

Eighty-seven percent of business-to-business (B2B) marketers now spread their message through social media, according to a new report from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

CMI's 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends research report found that social media marketing outpaced company-written articles to become the most commonly used tactic for B2B marketers.

The report says that LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for B2Bs with an 83 percent adoption rate. That percentage is up from a 71 percent rate last year. Facebook and Twitter came in second to LinkedIn with a tied adoption score of 80 percent.

In all, CMI says that B2Bs are using more marketing tactics than ever before. Tactics range from social media all the way to in-person events. According to the report, all tactics saw a rise in company adoption except print advertising, which stayed consistent from last year with a 31 percent adoption rate.

"We applaud [B2B] marketers for doing more and trying new tactics, although we must say we are pretty sure that throwing content at a customer is not the answer," CMI said in its report.

"But it's all part of the progress we are making as we evolve from marketing departments into what are starting to look like B2B publishing departments."

While social media has become a prime tactic for B2B content marketers, many B2Bs still wonder how effective the likes of Twitter and LinkedIn are. CMI reports that only 49 percent of B2B marketers think social media marketing is effective for their audience.

The marketers instead tended to lean toward the thinking that in-person events were the most effective way to spread their message. Sixty-four percent of B2B marketers said they thought in-person events were a very successful part of a marketing strategy.

Sixty percent of B2B marketers surveyed said they measure marketing effectiveness by web traffic statistics. Sales lead quality was another major barometer for effectiveness with 51 percent of marketers using it as a measuring stick.

Social media sharing is also becoming an important way to gauge marketing effectiveness. Forty-five percent of B2B marketers say they use social media-sharing statistics to find out if their marketing efforts were effective.

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Social Media Marketing Ranks As B2B Marketers’ Most Popular Tactic