Facebook Identified as Social Channel of Choice Among Marketing and IT Decision Makers

A recent study revealed that when asked which one channel they’d turn to for information on a vendor purchasing decision, about 1 in 4 (24 percent) marketing and IT decision makers said Facebook would be their social channel of choice.

“The Changing Face of Influence” study from Hotwire PR and Vanson Bourne found that only 17 percent of decision makers would rely on LinkedIn as their sole source of information, and just 6 percent would rely on Twitter.

“Decision makers look to the channels they’re using as a part of their daily routine – we don’t want to check whole new sources of information if we don’t have to,” according to authors. The average decision maker uses Facebook 18 days a month, while they only use LinkedIn 13 days per month.

Fifty-one percent of senior marketers and 39 percent of IT decision makers believe they’ll be using Facebook to help even more with decision-making in a year, showing this pattern will likely continue into the future.

“We expect to see Facebook further expand its reach and relevance in the B2B marketing community. It has the user base, it has the innovation, and its paid targeting ability is unmatched,” the authors added.

Despite the study’s findings, another recent Vanson Bourne study showed B2B marketers still rely on LinkedIn and Twitter as primary marketing channels. Facebook was the fourth most popular social channel, and only 70 percent of marketers plan to use it in the coming year.

B2B Marketers Generating More Activity on Facebook

A 2015 report showed that B2B marketers were seeing more ROI from Facebook activity than in 2014. The report, “Facebook by the Numbers” from AdRoll, showed that Facebook click-through rates increased 140 percent year-over-year from 2014 to 2015. The average clicks-per-thousand-impressions had also increased 115 percent YoY.

The authors note that “media consumption habits have shifted and B2B marketers have had to adapt by becoming more like their B2C counterparts. As a result, B2B marketers are now executing successful branding and lead generation campaigns on Facebook.”