New data from the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs give Australian B2B Marketers a glimpse into the future. This is a US only data sample and we think its fair to say that Australia is still playing catch up when it come to social media...but its coming whether you like it or will need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the era of social business.
The chart needs little explanation other than to reinfore a couple of key points:
The main task of social media is NOT reputation or brand management (despite what your vastly overpaid PR agency tells you) but to distribute your high value content. Distributing content is about one thing for B2B marketers: Lead generation, stretching the mouth of the funnel as wide as you possibly can.
Secondly, Linkedin, Twitter and (for some types of B2B business) Facebook are where the action is at with, interestingly, YouTube coming in fourth indicating the strong rise in the use of video content.
LinkedIn has overtaken Twitter as the number one method of content distribution. LinkedIn has significantly improved its platform in the last 12 months or so and goes WAY beyond being an online resume host and business network.
For Australian B2B Marketers this means building a content distribution strategy that is based on a regular methodical process. As with all B2B tactics creating momentum is key, with social media this means undertaking daily activity...yes, that's daily activity!
For most B2B marketers that is a daunting challenge and its also why many outsource these tasks to inbound marketing agencies who use smart automation tools and their up-to-date knowledge to assist in this task.
To find out more about the role of social media in lead generation please download our free eBook.
