by Jen Doyle, Senior Research Analyst

Most Effective Use of Social Media In Achieving B2B Branding Goals


Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart

In B2B marketing, social media is most effective at achieving branding goals, such as influencing brand reputation and increasing brand awareness. It’s also a very effective SEO tactic for improving search engine rankings and increasing website traffic.

However, social media does not currently rank as high on the B2B lead generation scale. The reason is that most marketers are so accustomed to using quantitative metrics to measure effectiveness that they overlook the qualitative nature of social media. For example, it’s not necessarily the number of comments about your brand on an industry blog that's important -- it’s the positive or negative nature of the commentary.

For additional research data and insights about B2B marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2009-2010 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.