Social media marketing is consolidated reaching its greatest penetration among companies

Social media marketing has finally managed to reach that critical mass that allows it to merit a place among the main channel marketing activities, with 96% of companies using somehow social networks, according to a new study by BtoB magazine.

According to this study, entitled “Social Media: From the Marginal to the Central,” 47% of B2B marketing managers define themselves as “very involved” or “fully integrated” with social marketing, from 28% They did it last year. Social media has already captured 6% of average B2B marketing budgets, a figure that can reach up to 9% in the most active companies in this area, according to the study.

In short, we can say that social media has already become widespread and present throughout the marketing of B2B companies.

However, only 41% of those marketing managers acknowledged that they are not trying to measure ROI in their social actions. Moreover, the responses given in the study punctuate the performance of social media as a marketing tool with only 6.4 within a scale of 10.

“We know that many companies are unable to measure the success of their marketing programs in social media,” says Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with the consulting firm Altimeter Group. “This is for three years one of the main challenges of marketing departments.

Owyang says that social marketing, if fully integrated into the marketing programs of companies, must be responsible for three very important metrics: to demonstrate an increase in sales, to be responsible for quota growth as well as for brand awareness and, Ultimately, be behind a general reduction in marketing costs.

Linkedln is the channel most used by B2B marketing departments according to the BtoB study, with 80%. Facebook (75%) and Twitter (74%) are commonly used. YouTube (59%), blogs (48%), Google+ (32%), client communities (24%), Pinterest (19%) and SlideShare LinkedIn (13%) are also used.

Despite the slow adoption of metrics in social media, companies recognize that they are seeing a positive effect on brand efforts. Respondents also comment that 11% of the traffic directed to their corporate web pages comes from efforts in social marketing.

The BtoB study was developed through an online survey conducted between January and February 2013, with the participation of 432 B2B business leaders. Technology companies accounted for 30% of the total, followed by manufacturers with 11%, financial services 9%, consultancy 9%, media and wholesalers / distribution with 4% respectively.