In a recent survey of B2B buyers, 97% of respondents listed e-mail as their main way sharing content on product research with colleagues.

Business-to-business e-commerce buyers don’t mind sharing comments about product research on social networks, but mainly prefer communicating with peers by e-mail, according to a report from research firm eMarketer, which cites data from Demand Gen Report and other sources.

The report notes that 97% of all respondents listed e-mail as their main way of sharing product content with colleagues to help with purchasing decisions. EMarketer didn’t say how many buyers took part in the survey.

B2B buyers aren’t afraid of using social media. The survey found that 78% of them use LinkedIn as their main social media channel, followed by Twitter at 59%, Facebook at 40%, Google+ 36%, Slideshare 32% and Pinterest 20%.

How B2B buyers view key business content also is changing, the report says. “A good deal of content consumption has shifted to mobile and video,” the report says, citing data from IDG Global Solutions. “More than half of B2B buyers now use mobile devices to make purchase decision research.”

67% of survey respondents use their web-enabled smartphone to visit a vendor site for product information compared with 65% to compare prices and products. Additionally, 57% use their smartphone to read feature articles about trends and strategies, 48% to watch videos, 47% to browse and participate in forums and social networks, 41% to read case studies and 34% to read white papers.

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“Buyers vastly prefer sharing via e-mail, but have shown preference for Linked In and Twitter for social media sharing purposes,” the report says. “Blog posts, infographics and videos were the most popular formats of content for sharing.”

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