Forrester: B2B underestimate social technologies

Majority B2B marketers are not effectively using social technologies to affects the purchasing decisions of business technology decision-makers. However, 77 percent of business technology decision-makers participate in social media on the job.

1,200 business technology decision-makers in North America and Europe participated in the survey by Forrester about their social media participation throughout the buying phase.Use was made of the same methodology by Forrester’s Social Technographics® Profile for providing marketers with an understanding of how consumers approach social technologies. With the use of the tool yielded by the survey, Technology Product Management & Marketing professionals are enabled to choose the most effective social media to their customers’ profile.

The Social Technographics Profile divides buyers into six categories according to their social activities. 27 percent of them qualify for Creators, who publish blogs publish and Web pages, and upload multimedia files and post articles online. Critics comprise 37 percent buyers, who provide reviews of products or services, post comment on others’ blog, and take part in online forums. 29 percent of buyers belong to Collectors as they make use of RSS feed and participate in polls. Spectators, 69 percent, read blogs, forums and reviews, keep track of podcasts and watch video from other users. Finally, 23 percent of the buyers are Inactives, as they employ any social media activities on the job.

The survey finds that social media can be managed to more effectively influence technology buying process as 51 percent of survey respondents said social media is not an important factor in the purchasing process. Moreover, more than  75 percent said peers play a more important role in their purchasing process than any social media.

Forrester Research, Inc. provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology through survey and research.

Source: Business Wire