Business to Business marketing has traditionally featured a steady diet of white papers and similar inbound marketing tactics to help companies gain exposure and form relationships with potential leads. But according to a new study by IDG Connect, IT buyers will soon look to social media as the single most important content source to inform their buying decisions. That’s right – social media!
According to the study, buyers are expected to give more weight to social content than editorial and white papers – and they expect this transition to happen soon – in two years or less.
The study found that social media is currently the least critical source of information for IT buyers when compared to editorial content and vendor-created content such as white papers and blog posts – so this shows that content is still very much king if you are a B2B business or marketer. But make plans to adjust soon!
According to the study, 86% of those surveyed currently already use social media today in their purchase decision process.
This is up significantly! As one IDG Connect analyst noted, social was given a weight only in the mid-20% range just a couple of years ago. This shows how quickly and profoundly this world is changing.
Not surprisingly, the study also found that buyers engaging on social networks are far more interested in educational content as opposed to transactional and promotional content.
If you want to learn more about the results from the IDG Connect study, you can download a report here.
Leave a Reply