When Social Media Goes B-to-B

A team of analysts over at Forrester Research recently produced “The Social Technographics of Business Buyers," a really thought-provoking report on the use of social media by IT decision-makers in the b-to-b world (as opposed to the b-to-c world, where the focus has traditionally been). The headline on Josh Bernoff’s blog is enough to attract anyone’s attention: New research: B2B buyers have very high social participation.

Consider this from the related PowerPoint presentation (just register and log in to get it):

In the current economy, social media offer new ways to reach and engage hidden B2B technology buyers.

Hidden buyers? In other words, there’s an untapped market here, if only companies don’t mess it up. Overall, these buyers are more engaged in social media than the average consumer — for work and for play.

Another section from Bernoff’s post:

• 91% of these technology decision-makers were Spectators — the highest number I’ve ever seen in a Social Technographics Profile. This means you can count on the fact that your buyers are reading blogs, watching user generated video, and participating in other social media. Note that 69% of them said they were using this technology for business purposes.

• Only 5% are non-participants (Inactives).
  

• 55% of these decision-makers were in social networks (Joiners) — despite as mature business people and not college students, you’d think they’d be participating a lot less.

• 43% are creating media (blogs, uploading videos or articles, etc.) and 58% are Critics, reacting to content they see in social formats. Again the numbers are very high compared to other groups we’ve surveyed, and again the level of participation for business purposes is also very high.

While Bernoff notes that word of mouth was still the number one influence on buying decisions, he expects that as social media becomes more commonplace, the online ecosystem will become more influential:

Note that buyers use social technology but don’t rate it highly in terms of its influence on their buying decisions. This, despite the fact that [they] count on peers’ opinions to make decisions. I think this reflects that people haven’t gotten used to this sort of information as a key input in buying decisions. This will change, especially as better applications come on line.

Another great insight:

Buyer use of social media — across all types of social media — is highest at the outset of an IT project and lowest during the final phrase Forrester dubs “Review the payback or business results of completed IT projects.”

Using Forrester’s P-O-S-T (People-Objectives-Strategy-Technology) approach, marketers can make sure their marketing campaign “does” social media in the right way. And based on how b-to-b buyers act, we can make sure to have have all the rungs on Forrester’s Social Technographics ladder (Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators) covered in our campaigns.

At the end of the day, as Forrester’s research shows, any successful social media marketing stategy begins by understanding the social behavior of buyers. What do you really know about what influences your current and potential customers to make a buying decision? And how can social media help tip the scales in your favor?