In the early days of social media, B2C companies were first to develop people, processes and competency around a new way to communicate with consumers. But as 2012 approaches it seems that B2B companies quickly catching up. According to Accenture, almost two-thirds of B2B marketing executives view social media as “an extremely important media channel.”
But actions don’t always line up with words as studies show that marketers are still hesitant about B2B social media. In fact, the same Accenture study shows that only 7% of surveyed B2B marketing executives say their company is “very heavily leveraging social media.”
This reflects data from the advertising, marketing and public relations agency vertical. lonelybrand’s State of the Agency Report shows that only 21% of agencies have profiles on the big three social networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).
Why is the B2B industry behind?
We wanted to know why so many B2B companies are still hesitant to jump on the social engagement bandwagon so we took a look at some of the responses from our survey of over 300 marketing executives. Over 30% of respondents cited the following reasons for not being involved in B2B social media engagement:
