Wrong. Your B2B customers are far more active in social media than most people have ever thought. While increasing age correlates with less Social Media involvement, I suspect that the technical sophistication of the B2B audience tends to offset that.
In any case, we are seeing strong involvement in Social Media by B2B customers who are using it for professional purposes.
Forrester Social Technographic profile for B2B Buyers:
- Creators 26%
- Critics 36%
- Collectors 28%
- Joiners 28%
- Spectators 68%
- Inactives 22%
Source: Forrester Research. The Social Technographics of Business Buyers 2009. 1,217 B2B customers
A stunning 26% of B2B buyers are actively creating content about the subjects that they are interested in on the Web. And 36% are actively critiquing products and content. This is a very active community by any definition of the term.
Conclusions:
- This is happening right now and if you are not leveraging this power, your company is missing out.
- If you are not contributing to this community and encouraging your supporters, your branding and positioning may well be slipping out of your control.
- If you are not monitoring these conversations, you may be missing the tsunami that is headed your way. (Examples: emerging trends, competitive announcements, product issues, standards)
Don’t believe these numbers apply to your business?
Download the free Forrester Groundswell survey tool and profile your customers for yourself. There is no excuse for not knowing your customers Social Technographic profiles.
