B2B brands don’t use social media effectively

Two in three business professionals claim they want a social relationship with companies yet as many as 70% agreed that B2B brands don’t know how to communicate effectively with them on social media, according to a study by Maxus for Business, the newly launched specialist B2B arm of Maxus Global.

The findings, indicative of the need for improved marketing content on social media sites, is based on the responses of the agency’s LinkedIn audience of 500 members.

In the study, 73% of respondents rated LinkedIn as the most trusted social media network for B2B communications while Facebook emerged as the least trusted source with only 9% considering it an appropriate communications channel. (The result is the second blow to Facebook’s e-commerce proposition as it comes on the heels of a survey by research firm Forrester released last week which slams Facebook’s marketing scheme)

Meanwhile only 17% chose Twitter as their preferred B2B medium.

Other key findings from the Maxus for Business survey include:

–       A quarter of business professionals surveyed have no or restricted social media access at work.

–       23% of business professionals said that the best time to make contact with them were evenings, while 22% said first thing in the morning on a working day, followed by 16% in the afternoon and 14% at lunchtime or before working hours.

–       For marketers developing new content marketing strategies this may come in handy (and as somewhat surprising) – only 6-7% of respondents said they were interested in receiving whitepapers and webinars. Company news, followed by How-To guides were the most popular form of content for business professionals.

–       86% respondents agreed that the most sought topic of news sought by respondents was news about their company, promotions at 79% and insights by 70%. 

James Bailey, head of Maxus For Business, was quoted on the findings saying: ‘Luckily for B2B marketers, this survey shows that business people are keen to hear from relevant brands. However, some brands could benefit from improved targeting and perhaps sometimes a better understanding of the day-to-day realities of busy, time-poor executives’ working lives.’

He added: ‘There’s a gap in the market for a best-in-class specialist media planning offer and Maxus For Business has been created to meet this need.’