Marketers must stop thinking of social media tools in isolation and start thinking of them as another channel in their overall marketing mix.

B2B marketing lays the path to a sales discussion and supports relationships with existing customers. Social media is another channel, one of many, for making the connection and building the relationship with customers.

Social media have value on their own, but they should also be used to complement other marketing channels, such as events, whitepapers, and Websites.

Before embarking on any marketing initiative, marketers first think about their objectives and goals. They then come up with a strategy to achieve these goals, deciding what channels to use, which may or may not include social media.

In this report, ITSMA examines how B2B marketers are leveraging social media channels in their marketing strategies.

Key Findings

• Most marketers recognize there should be no social media strategy; only marketing strategy
• Few companies are researching their target audience and their behavior for social media
• Marketers are struggling to provide content for social media. Social media, itself, may
  be part of the solution to this problem!
• Some marketers are using social media in the thought leadership development process
• Some social media tools are more effective during different stages of the buying process, however, few companies are mapping their tools to the buying stages
• Social media requires new roles, competencies, policies, and governance

Study Methodology

• Online Web-based survey
• Survey invitations were emailed during February 2010 to ITSMA member and nonmember companies
• The survey was also promoted on Twitter and LinkedIn
• 123 representatives from 80 companies responded
• ITSMA analyzed the data by:
  • Company type (sells products and services or primarily services)
  • Annual revenue (Less than $250M, $250–999.9M, Greater than $1B)
  • Region (North America or Europe & Africa)
  • Social media strategy (planning/ad hoc basis/piloting or formal social media
    strategy)

This report is available free to current members that responded to this survey.

If your company is on the above list, please send us an email (using your company email) and request your free report.

This report is available for sale at member and nonmember prices.

• See if your company is an ITSMA member
• Email ITSMA for more information
• Download an Abbreviated Summary of this Online Survey!