B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Social Media Now a Top Information Source for B2B IT Buyers

September 18th, 2008 Posted by: Bill Gadless

We recently came across the third biennial installment (or “Wave III”, as the authors label it) of the ITtoolbox/PJA IT Social Media Index survey, conducted during June/July of this year.  A total of 2,935 Information Technology professionals from 109 countries participated, drawn directly from the ITtoolbox network.

Geographically, the survey respondent distribution was 56% North America, 21% Asia, 15% Europe, and 8% rest of world …in fact, fairly similar to the markets of many of eMagine’s clients.  The industry mapping was fairly tech-dominated (nearly 30% software or IT consulting), but also included nearly 10% manufacturing/process, 7.5% banking/finance and 6% healthcare.  From a role/title standpoint, again not surprisingly respondents were over 57% IT analysts or developers;  but more than 23% classified themselves as business managers or decision-makers (either “executive” or only within the IT scope).

With that background, here are some of the key takeaways:

• Consumption of social and user-generated content (defined as blogs, podcasts, online communities, wikis, and profiles/social networking) continues to rise ahead of traditional editorial media.  ITtoolbox/PJA’s IT Social Media Index (pegged at 100 for editorial media in Wave I) now stands at 135, a 30% increase since the Wave I research was conducted in mid-2007.
• Among social media and user-generated content, the use of blogs, discussion groups, and wikis is leading the growth in consumption/participation.
• Social media consumption continues to outpace that of editorial and vendor content, increasing from 3.26 hours/week in Wave II to 3.7 hours/wk in Wave III.  Average time spent with vendor content actually dropped slightly.

It’s perhaps tempting to dismiss these results as predictable, given the preponderance of technologists responding;  but in fact, two of the three managerial respondent groups said they spent even more hours a week with social/UGC content than the 3.7 average!

Smaller firms ahead of the curve
For companies of less than 1,000 employees (which is more reflective of eMagine’s client base), the trend is even more pronounced than with the total sample;  here are their answers to the query, “How many hours during an average week do you spend online consuming or participating in the following media types?”

Social/UGC: 3.89
Editorial:     3.40
Vendor:      2.88

For B2B vendors, the message is clear:  participating (properly) across social media venues is now the most influential way to reach buyers.  B2B IT decision makers are increasingly less interested in advertising and more eager to get unbiased information from their peers.  And, as important as your website content and SEM efforts still are, it’s really unwise these days to rely on that exclusively.  Your Web marketing consultants should be able to help you properly leverage the social media and UGC appropriate to your business context.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy