Businesses are now seriously looking at social media as a huge potential for marketing and churning out profits. According to recent reports, business-to-business (B2B) spending on social media is set to increase dramatically over the next few years.
B2B participation in social media marketing is steadily increasing, and marketers are beginning to see opportunities to generate quality leads and position themselves as thought leaders in their industries. As firms get more comfortable using social media, it will become much more than just a lead-generation tool. Forrester Research’s prediction is that B2B firms will spend $4.8 billion on social media marketing by 2014 – an increase of $2.3 billion in comparison to 2009 spends.
Currently B2B marketers tend to spend their money on customer communities, podcasts and blogs. Targeted advertising on Facebook and MySpace— accounts for just a small proportion of B2B marketers’ social spending. The expectation is that when companies budget for social media marketing in 2010, emphasis of brands on B2B social media will definitely increase.
The control of a B2B company’s brand is rapidly transitioning from corporate marketing departments to the business-to-business conversations taking place. And you thought social media marketing was only for customers!!
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