The question below was posted by Jennifer j on LinkedIn. I was not surprised that the two answers were positive based on the industries they are in.I would like to know how effective it has been for you in your industry?
Pierre Rattini, CCO, BiZ BuZz MeDia
http://bizbuzzmedia.net
Amplify’d from www.linkedin.com
Is Social Media a valuable Business Tool for you with regards to building B2B relationships?
What do you consider to be a business relationship? Regular exchanges?
Is it enough to chat or should it amount to a sale?
...How would you measure your ROI?
Location specific: United Kingdom
posted 1 hour ago in Customer Relationship Management
In my industry social media sites such as linkedin are invaluable tools in building relationships and networking. I would estimate that 60% of my revenue comes from an introduction or search from a social media site.
Not all contacts result in revenue or as you put it a sale - however the network and connections gained often result in referrals which do generate alpha. In terms of the return on investment majority of the social media sites are free and allow you access to thousands of users where you can advertise, inform and survey numerous people at the click of a button from your office or home. In short social media sites are pivotal in modern business relationships.
Yes social media is certainly valuable in the B2B market, but only as a part of an integrated program.
Despite the hype, is it's the variety of connections that ultimately make a sale. Think more about the customer and how you can help them along the buying cycle, and less about an individual marketing execution.
Your buyer will go through stages before making a purchase decision like:
Identify Need
Research Solutions
Develop Provider Short List
Evaluation of alternatives
Social media is great at the beginning with Needs Development and Research, but other traditional methods including close integration with your sales team can handle the balance
Ultimately the goal of social, and other content marketing should be to start them on the process and get them to include your company on the consideration list.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/gS89Ep
