Social Media in B2B: The New Kids on the Block

Abstract

Social media has long established itself in everyday marketing. In the field of B2B content marketing, social media channels are rated with 95% approval as almost as important as the companies website with 98% approval according to the Statista Content Marketing Trend Study 2020. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and the like are regarded as the social media classics or newcomers and are currently used much more in the B2C than in the B2B environment. More and more social media channels are springing up like mushrooms and it is difficult to keep track. Scott Brinker provides an impressive overview of his annual Marketing Technology Landscape (https://chiefmartec.com/2020/04/marketing-technology-landscape-2020-martech-5000/. Accessed: April 27, 2020). The following chapter shows which channel is suitable for B2B at all, what can be transmitted from B2C, what targeting possibilities the respective channel offers, and where the B2B social media trend is heading. The Millennials have arrived in everyday business life and form an important target group. In the 2019 Millennial Survey, 40% of millennials are concerned if they cannot access their profiles for more than a day (https://www2.deloitte.com/de/de/pages/innovation/contents/millennial-survey-2019.html. Accessed: April 29, 2020). For B2B there are often still undiscovered opportunities to build business relationships for the future based on B2C social media. Social media targeting provides important information on this to derive opportunities for B2B social media marketing activities.