We collect a large amount of data in the course of our conversations and benchmarks with clients and other B2B companies. Given the requests we receive from the market at large for social marketing data, we’d like to share some of our recent findings.

We collect a large amount of data in the course of our conversations and benchmarks with clients and other B2B companies. Given the requests we receive from the market at large for social marketing data, we’d like to share some of our recent findings.

The following data is based on benchmark studies, surveys, interviews and inquiries we’ve conducted during the past 9 months. Please note that this data was collected from over 600 B2B organizations around the world, distributed equally across small, medium and large enterprises. The one common characteristic is that while these organizations may have some transactional business, they all have longer, complex sales cycles.

  • While close to 70% of B2B organizations are using social media in some way, only 19% have a coordinated, enterprise-wide strategy.
  • Close to 80% of B2B organizations are only applying social marketing at the top of the funnel.
  • B2B organizations that integrate social media into their demand creation programs report a 32% increase in campaign responses.
  • B2B organizations that use social media throughout the demand creation waterfall report up to a 40% increase in closed deals.
  • Only 21% of B2B organizations are using social media throughout the nurturing phases of longer sales cycles.
  • Only 19% of B2B organizations report that they are using social media tools or tactics as part of sales enablement programs.
  • Less than 15% of B2B organizations have a central social media function (what we call Social Operations) that provides the services/expertise necessary to empower a wide range of employees to leverage social media.
  • B2B organizations are losing up to 30% of an individual’s productivity when multiple staff are using social media in an uncoordinated way, to say nothing of the mixed marketing messages and dilution of brand that occurs.