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HOW TO DRIVE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA 2014

New research reveals when B2B IT decision makers use social media in the buying
process, what networks they use the most, and what they want to see from these
social media networks

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GRAPHICS MENU >

Content
Sources

Buying
Stages

Prefered
Content

Linked
Activities

Content
Types

Purchase
Decisions

INTRODUCTION
In January 2006 Twitter didnt exist, blogging was
mocked, and Facebook was for students. Over
the following five years social media took off, but
still many people questioned the importance of
social networks in the B2B space. Now in 2014,
its usefulness has been proven over and over
again and it continues to gain momentum. In
fact, as content marketing gradually grows in
importance, social media is playing an even more
significant role.

New research conducted in November 2013 by

IDG Connect shows that 86% of B2B Information
Technology (IT) buyers are currently using
social media networks in their purchase decision
process. Social media is not only important for
companies, but it is now a necessary investment
and crucial element of any go-to-market
strategies. And findings suggest this is only set to
increase over the next couple of years.

Summary

86% of IT buyers are using social media networks and content in their purchase decision process
Social media is used most often in the general education stage of the buying cycle
89% of IT buyers prefer educational content to promotional content in their favored social media channels
62% of IT buyers are most interested in seeing e-seminars (virtual events) from social channels
Product/Service reviews are the content types that IT buyers prefer to see links from via social channels
In two years, social, peer-generated content will have greater weight versus editorial and vendor content in
making IT investment decisions

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FINDINGS
Relative Importance of Content Sources for IT Investment Decisions

Compared to vendor content or editorial content from independent authorities, how much weight do you
give to content from social channels in making IT investment decisions? How much weight will each get two
years from now?
Today

In Two Years

35% 31%

34% 32%

31% 37%

Editorial Content
(independent third parties)

Vendor Content
(vendor provided)

Social Content
(peer generated)
(Source: IDG Connect N:582)

Content rules, as weve heard a million times,

and thats no different when it comes to the IT
decision making process. IT buyers are getting
their information from sources including vendor
content (vendor created), editorial content
(offered by independent third parties), and
social content (from social communities and
largely peer generated). Vendor content has
traditionally always been important to the IT
buyer, but social and editorial content have come
into the mix, as well.

Today, editorial content has the biggest weight

in making IT investment decisions (35%). That
is followed by vendor content (34%) and then
social content (31%). In two years, social content
will move ahead of both vendor and editorial
content and will have a weight of 37% while
editorial falls to 31% and vendor will fall to 32%.
There is strength in all three of these sources, but
if vendors can participate in social then they get a
double win.

Implications
Social must be connected to demand generation and be managed by individuals who have the authority
along with responsibility. Having a mix of generation sources is clearly important to buyers so vendors
and agencies must strive for a healthy mix to meet preferences.

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Buying Stages When Social Media Networks and Content Are Used
What buying stages do you use them in?
General
Education

Business Case
Development
48%

Facebook

37%

Google search

28%

Twitter

30%

Google+

Evaluation/
Implementation

Shortlist
Creation

26%

26%

21%

26%

22%

20%
15%

13%

17%

18%

13%

13%

19%

16%

15%

YouTube

25%

17%

14%

12%

BLOGS - Analysts

17%

13%

14%

11%

BLOGS - Vendors

15%

13%

15%

10%

BLOGS - Peers

13%

15%

14%

Slideshare

9%

BLOGS - Other

3%

14%
5%
2%

19%

17%

25%

10%

29%

19%

LinkedIn

Pintrest

Final
Decision

7%

9%
15%
11%
8%
10%

6%

6%

2%

4%

4%

2%

2%

3%

1%
(Source: IDG Connect N:122)

Social media networks are used across all five buying stages, but it is used the most during the general
education stage. It is only used half as much during the final decision stage. The second most important
area is the business case development stage, which shows that social media is most important to IT
buyers in their early stage of looking into making an investment.
Results show that Facebook is the most popular social media network for IT buyers; they are using it at
every stage of the buying process. Facebook is becoming more than a network to share photos and videos
but a community where users connect with people they trust in the industry to get advice and look for
relevant information.
There are a variety of different blogs that are being looked at by buyers. The most popular blog type
was analysts/industry watchers, followed by vendor blogs and then peer blogs. While there are many
communities out there for buyers to look at for information, vendors should use blogs to effectively reach
prospective buyers by working with analysts or participating through media companies or their own
company blog.

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Implications
Vendors who are not blogging to take advantage of social are less likely to gain buyer consideration.
Social networks and communities are one of the first places that buyers look to for general education
as they make an IT investment.
It is no longer enough for vendors to only be involved in one community or in one social network; they
should have a social mix using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn (the top four social networks
that buyers look to for decision making).

Types of Vendor-Provided Content Links Acceptable from Favored Social Media

Channels
The majority of buyers (9 out of 10) prefer
educational content when it comes to what they
would like to see on their favored social media
channels. This does not mean that transactional
(or promotional) content is not allowed as 6 out
of 10 feel that links to transactional content are
acceptable.

What types of vendor-provided content links

would be acceptable to you if offered from your
favored social media channels?

In order for buyers to get the most out of their

social media efforts, there needs to be a healthy
mix of the two (educational and translational).
Just make sure you do not label something
educational when it has promotional elements
as there will be negative reaction. There should
be more educational content, but every business
has to do some self-promotion, so therefore
links to transactional content will always be
acceptable.

89%
64%
1%

Implications
Vendors who are posting only promotional
content are not going to be considered in the
buying process. Even worse is presenting
transactional content as educational because
doing so calls into question the validity and
accuracy of all educational insight offered by the
vendor.

Educational Content
Transactional (Promotional) Content
None
(Source: IDG Connect N:151)

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Activities to be Linked to from Social Channels

What activities are you most interested in seeing links to

from social channels?

62%
61%

E-Seminar (Virtual Event)

Expert technical Blog

52%
51%

Expert Business Blog

E-Trade Show (Virtual Event)

49%
Full Day Seminar Invitation (In-Person)

46%
Vendor Hosted Business Forum

42%
Vendor Hosted Technical Forum

1%
None

47%

Half Day Seminar Invitation (In-Person)

43%
Peer Technical Blog

39%
Peer Business Blog

(Source: IDG Connect N:151)

When asked what activity links buyers are

most interested in, e-seminars (virtual
events) came out on top with 62% of buyers
showing interest. Following closely behind
were expert technical blogs and expert
business blogs. Other activities included full
and half day seminars and forums.
Vendors should get involved in blogs
and forums (forums are more questions
and answers whereas blogs are more
conversation based). Having forum and blog
communities linked together is a great way
to get a maximum amount of community
engagement.

Implications
IT buyers favor vendors who have links to
virtual events, blogs, and forums on their
social networking profiles. Those buyers will
easily be able to find the information theyre
looking for by going to their favored social
channels (whether it be Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, etc.).
On the other hand, if vendors are not
currently linking these activities, they
should start to in order to give their buyers
what they are looking for.

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Content Types to be Linked to from Social Channels

Of the content types you use which types do you want to have offered to you via links from social
channels?
Product/Service Review

41%

Competitive Comparison

41%

Product/Service Overview

39%

Research Report

39%

Case study

37%

PowerPoint Presentation

36%

Product/Service Use Tutorial

35%

Web or Email Advertisement

34%

Product/Service Preview/Demonstration

34%

Seminar/Webinar

33%
(Source: IDG Connect N:487)

When IT buyers look to social networks, they want to see educational content (as mentioned earlier).
This is proven even more here, where only four promotional content types out of eighteen are desired by
buyers via social links.
Product/service reviews, competitive comparisons, and product/service overviews are in high demand
when it comes to most preferred content types. Vendors who provide product/service reviews will
help push buyers further along the buying cycle. Without these, buyers could miss a vendors product
completely and move onto one that provides insight using more desired content types.

Implications
Educational content is the clear winner when it comes to offering links via social channels. Social teams
must join forces with product teams to make sure that they are sharing content with each other. Without
that alignment, your social media teams will not be armed with the content needed to best engage with
buyers.

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Social Media Networks or Content Sources Used in Making Technology Purchase
Decisions

Which of the following social media networks or content do you use in making technology purchase decisions?

58%

57%

51%
38%

38% 34%

33%

31%

27%

26%

25%

17%

None

Podcasting Communities
(Blubrry)

Niche Social Networks

(Pinterest, Instagram)

Collaborative Blogs
(BlogHer, LiveJournal)

Blog Networks
(9Rules, Gawker)

Presentation Sharing
(Slideshare, docstoc, Scribd)

Content-Driven Communities
(Wikipedia)

Microblogging
(Twitter, Terchnorati)

Review and Recommendation

(Yelp, Consumer Search,
Epinions)

Video Sharing
(YouTube, Vimeo)

Professional Networks
(LinkedIn, Viadeo, XING)

Social Networking
(Facebook, Google+)

Search (Google)

4%

(Source: IDG Connect N:487)

When making technology decisions, IT buyers are looking the most at search (58%) followed by social
networking sites, such as Facebook (57%). Following closely to those two are professional networking
sites, such as LinkedIn, and video sharing sites, such as YouTube.
The links that buyers are looking for are often times to blogs as they offer conversations with experts,
analysts, and people who share an interest in the same topics.
Vendors want to participate where there is less noise, such as blog networks and collaborative blogs. The
tradeoff of less noise is considered against the likelihood of less traffic. Regardless, vendors must consider
blog networks to extend conversations in the direction of B2B buyers.

Implications
Habits form from what buyers do personally, which is why a lot of the sites that buyers visit as they make
decisions are sites that they frequent for personal reasons.

Conclusion

09

In 2014, the whole buying process is moving online and becoming more social. If IT decision makers are
going to spend large volumes of their budget on new tools, they want to know as much about it as they
can up-front, before they commit to anything. In practice, this means that there is a real opportunity at
the early education stages of the buying process.
Vendors must have a clear, consistent game plan that ties in with all their other demand generation
activities and targets potential buyers on their own turf. This means they will need to blog and distribute
information via a variety of social channels. They will need to utilize relevant communication networks
to ensure it is easy for potential buyers to locate the views of peers and independent experts alike. But
above all, they will need to integrate their messaging within the social media framework, so that when IT
decision makers come looking for information, the vendors will be there ready to answer their questions.
Today all this is imperative for organizations to remain on top of the curve.

For questions or more information contact

Bob Johnson, Principal Analyst, IDG Connect at bob_johnson@idgconnect.com

About IDG Connect

IDG Connect, a division of International Data Group (IDG), the worlds largest technology media company, produces,
publishes and distributes local IT and business information on behalf of a truly global client base. Established in
2005, we have a fully nurtured audience of 2.6 million professional decision-makers from 130 countries, and an
extended reach of 38 million names. This lets us conduct research, create independent analysis and opinion articles,
and drive long-term engagement between professionals and B2B marketers worldwide. For more information visit
www.idgconnectmarketers.com