According to an eMarketer study–courtesy of David Deans’ post on MarcomProfessional–B2B marketers are laggards when it comes to social media.  The study indicated that half of B2B marketers surveyed are not even using content marketing tools such as blogging.

Forget about social media tools and focus on social media strategy.  Social media is not optional for B2B marketers.  It represents a fundamental shift in the way your prospects and clients communicate and interact on the internet and is quickly spilling over into the offline world as more people invest in mobile devices and location-based services such as FourSquare. 

Social media cannot be ignored, nor can it be relegated to an experimental grass roots effort.  B2B marketers must consider social media when developing their marketing and marketing communications strategies–even if your strategy begins with a small phased-in approach such as setting up listening posts to at least monitor the social sphere.

Ok… but I’m still not convinced of the ROI of B2B social media

In December 2009, I discussed why seeking the ROI of B2B social media was like seeking the ROI of a brochure.   The post featured the popular Eric Qualman video, “Socialnomics:  Social Media ROI” based on his book Socialnomics.   Here we are six months later and the pace at which social media is gaining adoption has accelerated significantly.  Eric Qualman has created a refresh of his original video which emphasizes the accelerated pace of adoption and goes as far as to suggest that the ROI of social media is “will your business exist in five years.” As radical as that may seem to many B2B marketers who haven’t even begun to consider a social media strategy, it’s not far-fetched at all.

Perhaps the question B2B marketers should be asking instead of “what’s the ROI of social media” is how much longer can I ignore social media before it will begin negatively impacting my business?  Watch the video and let me know what you think.

The folks at B2B Voices hosted a group of marketing and communications professionals to discusss the topic   “Social Media and ROI: Dare We Talk About It.”  One of the most important outcomes of the meeting was the fact that metrics used to determine social media ROI should be money-focused such as increased sales, lower cost per acquisition, etc.   However, what often are reported as ROI metrics–number of followers, likes, subscribers, etc.–don’t really cut it when talking to marketing execs… especially when it comes to asking for more money for your social media program.

The following slide show by Weber Shandwick’s Aaron Pearson (@apearson) and Andy Keith (@andykeith) shares helpful information on where most B2B marketers are when it comes to measuring B2B social media effectiveness.  Interestingly, most B2B marketers are still struggling with where to begin.  The 20-slide show offers a practical good start.