93% majorly use Twitter, and 91% say LinkedIn is their favored platform for promoting social marketing campaigns, according to a Regalix Research survey.

Nearly all of global business-to-business companies say Twitter is their most frequently used platform for social media marketing, according to a new report recently released by digital marketing services firm Regalix Research. 93% majorly use Twitter, and 91% say LinkedIn is their favored platform for social media marketing.  

The report, the “State of B2B Social Media Marketing 2015,” authored by senior vice president and principal analyst Nimish Vohra and senior marketing manager Srinivasan Seethapathy, also found that 95% of companies used social media marketing to increase brand awareness, and that three-fourths blog as their primary marketing tactic. 

Regalix based the report on a June 2015 survey of 422 senior marketing executives from several industries, including business software and Internet services, computers and electronics, telecommunications and business services. 44% of respondents were based in North America, and the rest were from other regions including Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The reports’ authors, however, contend that businesses’ use of social media as a marketing tool could be more refined as more companies invest in social media marketing staff and resources. They cite a 2014 study by IDG Connect —“Connecting Conversations to Content: How to Drive Engagement Through Social Media 2014”—that found 86% of IT buyers use social media networks to guide purchase decisions.

“Given the stickiness of the medium and its power to engage, we would like to see organizations using the social platform more to engage with their customers and prospective buyers, and building a relationship with them,” the Regalix authors say. “We also see a need for analytics to measure and monitor social media activities more rigorously, so companies can focus on channels that are working for them.”

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The Regalix study found the following percentages of companies using B2B social media marketing networks:

  • 93% Twitter
  • 91% LinkedIn
  • 68% Facebook
  • 57% YouTube
  • 23% Google+
  • 9% Vimeo
  • 7% Pinterest

Regalix authors also mentioned they expect YouTube to gain traction in the coming years, as they see a rising importance of video as content.

The Regalix study also looked at ways companies build their exposure in social media marketing, including the following by percentage of companies: found the following percentages of companies using tactics in social media marketing:

  • 79% blogging/microblogging
  • 74% content sharing among multiple social sites
  • 68% webinars
  • 66% social media advertising
  • 57% social sharing buttons
  • 18% social media contests

Following are the percentages of companies citing key objectives of social media marketing:

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  • 94% increase brand awareness;
  • 69% lead generation;
  • 67% constant engagement with customers and prospects;
  • 59% delivering updates about the company and its products;
  • 56% promote products;
  • 49% increase customer acquisition;
  • 47% increase customer loyalty;
  • 39% advocate the company’s initiatives
  • 23% increase customer support.

Sign up for a free subscription to B2BecNews, a weekly newsletter that covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B e-commerce industry. B2BecNews is published by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes the monthly business magazine Internet Retailer. Follow Nona Tepper, associate editor for B2B e-commerce, on Twitter @ntepper90.

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