As we were trying to put together some interesting facts about social media for B2B marketers, we discovered this interesting video. Then, we decided why would we tell you something, when we can show you instead. So, enjoy it.

B2B companies are ahead of their B2C rivals when it comes to social media adoption

• 81% of B2B companies maintain company-related accounts or profiles on social media sites versus 67% of B2C
• 75% of B2Bers participate in microblogging (eg. Twitter) versus 49% of B2Cers

Source: Business.com – 2009 B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007404)

And the FTSE 100 are just plain running scared of Twitter

• Just 16 of the FTSE 100 companies are using Twitter, despite the fact that 20% of Tweets contain a reference to a product or brand

Source: Virgin Media Business (http://ow.ly/1gDTf)

But CIOs could well be the biggest blocker to social media adoption

• 54% of CIOs prohibit use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, while at work

Source: Robert Half Technology (http://rht.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=131&item=790)

Use of social media by B2B companies is validated by B2B buyer perspectives

• 93% of business buyers believe all companies should have a presence in social media
• 85% believe companies should not just present information via social media, but use it to interact and become more engaged with them

Source: Cone Inc – Social Media in business (http://ow.ly/1dLqJ)

And that’s because the B2B buying process is fundamentally changing

• 9 out of 10 buyers say that when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you

Source: DemandGen Report

• Over 70% of purchases are restricted to established vendors or are heavily dependent on Word of Mouth recommendations

Source: Buyersphere ebook, Enquiro (http://ow.ly/YbQm)

• More than 8 out of 10 IT decision-makers said word of mouth recommendations are the most important source when making buying decisions

Source: Forrester Research, How to take B2B relationships from Indifferent to Engaged: Jan 2009

• 59% of B2B buyers engaged with peers who addressed their challenge, 48% followed industry conversations on the topic and 37% posted questions on social networking sites looking for suggestions

Source: Genius (http://www.genius.com/marketinggeniusblog/2767/a-glimpse-inside-the-mind-of-the-new-b2b-buyer.html)

Yet there are differing opinions as to where search comes into play in the buy cycle

• 7 out of 10 buyers say that they start their buying process at vendor sites, not Google

Source: DemandGen Report (http://ow.ly/1d82N)

Versus

• 93% of B2B buyers use search to begin the buying process

Source: Marketo (http://bit.ly/9O6pix)

If you think C-level executives aren’t active online, you’re sorely mistaken

• The Internet is the C-Suites top information resource (74% of C-Level executives say it’s very valuable)
• 53% of C-level executives said they prefer to locate information themselves
• The C-suite first turns to mainstream search engines (63%) to locate information
• 6 out of 10 C-Suite executives conduct more than six searches a day
• Executives in IT are the most prevalent users of the Internet for information gathering

Source: Forbes Insight – The Rise of the Digital C-Suite (http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/digital_csuite/index.html)

Client marketers are warming to the idea of social media, but many are still to act

• While 92% of client marketers agree that it would be unwise to ignore social media, 63% do not have a social media strategy

Source: The B2B Barometer (http://www.b2bbarometer.co.uk)

The relationship between Marketing and Sales in B2B organisations still remains fractious

• Sales generate 53% of their own leads and marketing contributes just 24%

Source: 2009 CSO Report (http://bit.ly/7EbaHS)

• 90% of marketing deliverables are not used by sales

Source: The New Rules of Sales Enablement (http://tiny.cc/jXRxX)

• 49% of B2B marketers confess to not measuring ROI

Source: The B2B Barometer (http://www.b2bbarometer.co.uk)

And if you still don’t get the whole social media thing, it’s worth bearing in mind…

• 89% of journalists make use of blogs while conducting their online research and 96% turn to corporate websites
• 56% said social media was important or somewhat important for reporting and producing stories

* Note: We have used and abused the above information, as the author insisted. A special thanks for the folks at Earnest Agency.

As of March 2010, Google holds an overwhelming lead over its search engine competitors according to the latest NetMarketShare search engine report. Google commands 85.75% of the worldwide search engine market, an increase in nearly 6% year over year. Yahoo has dropped two percentage points year over year, and is at 5.38%. Bing has been hovering at around the 3% mark. Baidu, which primarily serves the Chinese and Japanese markets has lost a significant share of the market and is currently at 3.52%, while Ask, AOL and other search engines are all around the 1% mark. It’s obvious that all competition has been surrendering market share to Google.

What does this mean in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Well, the answer is quite simple, you should primarily focus on optimizing for Google above all others, but don’t forget about Yahoo and Bing, because if the market shifts unexpectedly, it means that you have your bases covered. We all remember when AltaVista was king back in the late 90’s, only to be driven into irrelevancy by its failed portal attempt and the rise of Google. Whatever SEO marketer you choose, make sure they optimize for Yahoo and Bing as well.

CEO’s and other top management, need to understand that a website is an integral part of their company’s marketing efforts on the internet, and in addition, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is needed to further increase your visibility on the web. Optimizing your website for search engines should be your number one priority after launching or completely redesigning the company site. A well optimized site will allow you to achieve higher positioning in all the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. When users search for content using one of those search engines, they will typically only skim through several pages of search results. If your listing doesn’t show up within those pages, you’ll miss out on an opportunity to connect with your target audience.

For example, let’s say you have a potential customer in Ottawa, who sells computer equipment, and needs to ship out a skid load (Less than Truckload or LTL) of computer parts to Toronto. The web savvy customer will type in “LTL Ottawa Toronto” in the search engine, and a bunch of results related to LTL shipping throughout Ontario will show up. Will your company be among them? This is where SEO comes into play. Through the use of strategically placed keywords, well written original copy and other optimizations, your company can achieve a better search result on the web.

Here are some of our Top 10 tips for a successful website, both from a Marketing and a SEO perspective:

1. Strike the right balance between loading speed and visual impact of your home page.
2. Capture your visitors’ interest immediately.
3. Deliver a clear and direct message.
4. Ensure your navigation is easy to use, well organized, and draws on current techniques.
5. Enhance your message with complementary fonts, captions, and headlines.
6. Increase return visits by posting regular updates.
7. Make sure your logo and tagline are well crafted and consistent.
8. Provide immediate access to customer login, language selection, and other popular features.
9. Utilize SEO.
   - Use proper keywords and descriptions on each page.
   - Make navigation elements easily recognized by search engines.
   - Optimize headings and alternate text for images.
   - Ensure your URLs are search engine friendly and anchor texts are descriptive.
10. Gain insight on your web traffic with Google Analytics (or equivalent).
    - Visits – Monitor the number of repeat and new visitors to your website.
    - Bounce Rate – Know how many visitors leave immediately after the first page is viewed.
    - Time – See the average time visitors spend on your website.
    - Traffic – Learn where your top 25 sources of visitors are coming from.
    - Keywords – Recognize the top 25 words searched on Google to get to your website.

Because of the large amount of websites that exist on the Internet, in the past few years many SEO Marketing companies have popped up on the web. A lot of them will claim that they can offer a number one ranking for your website in Google or other search engines. According to Google, this is simply not the case. You cannot buy your way into getting a better search result on Google, but you can however optimize your site so that it has a better chance of showing up near the top of your search results. You can pay to run advertisements on Google through a program called AdWords, but we’ll explore that in a future SEO article.

We’re in the business of creating websites and marketing campaigns that communicate your unique story. Contact us, so that your CEO will get SEO, and that your CFO can LOL.