Dear B2Bs: I. TOLD. YA. SO. (In fact, I've told ya many times over.)

IDC just released The State of Social Business: 2009 Survey Results, a study that surveyed 4,700+ U.S. workers which outlines the use of social media for BUSINESS purposes.

And while the shared findings from the study have produced a whole lotta happy for my world, the implications should definitely be taken to heart by all marketers in the B2B world.

Why? Several reasons that we'll get to in short order. But first, let me provide IDC's explanation of the study for some background:

Broad in scope, The State of Social Business: 2009 Survey Results represents the current state of SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE FOR BUSINESSES in the United States, providing a profile of BUSINESS WORKERS leveraging these newer tools, and an understanding of the use cases for each social tool, including blogs, microblogs, discussion forums, photo/video sharing sites, social bookmarking tools, social networks, Web chats/instant messages, wikis, and virtual worlds.

According to IDC's Michael Fauscette, group vice president, Software Business Strategies: "If you look deep into the social business movement you will see that we are on the brink of a fundamental change in the way businesses interact with customers, partners, suppliers, and employees. Businesses today fall into three camps – the social 'denyer', the accidental socialite, and the socially aware. Regardless of where a company falls in these categories, customers expectations of technologies and the way they interact with suppliers have changed, driven greatly by the social Web."

As for the study's findings, let's begin on this gem...

*Finding* 57% of U.S. workers use social media for business purposes at least once per week.

57% of U.S. workers, that's a significant number—given that's more than half and at a highly engaged rate of at least once weekly. Let's put that in perspective, shall we? Think of any business that holds over 50% market share in any given sector and what do we call them?

Behemoths. Best-In-Class. Captains of Industry. Leaders. The 800-Pound Gorilla. And so on. The point is, we take those businesses VERY seriously. We don't label them fads, fly-by-nights or even trends. Nope. They're permanent and they permanently change the (business) world. Same too with social media's effect on the B2B world, both internally to organizations from process and productivity standpoints, and externally from a profit standpoint on attracting and maintaining customers.

Here's another epiphany...

*Finding* The survey found that while marketers are the earliest and largest adopters of social media, these tools are now gaining DEEPER penetration into the enterprise with use by EXECUTIVE MANAGERS and IT.

Gaining ground with Executive Managers, eh? Hold up there, aren't those the "suits" who purportedly make the bigger bucks, get the good offices and have the power to make decisions? And don't their decisions include purchasing, vendor assessment and selection?

Yes, those questions are rhetorical. But without question, the gravity of this finding on B2Bs' bottom lines speaks for itself, as more executives, in higher levels of authority, are seeking recommendations from other professionals and can now use social tools to more easily research their feedback online, with that feedback informing and influencing their own decisions. Onto the next nugget...

*Finding* The NUMBER ONE reason cited by U.S. workers for using social tools for business purposes was to acquire knowledge and ask questions from a community.

It's important to understand that when workers (professionals) use social tools to acquire knowledge and ask questions they do so for very PRACTICAL reasons, and are guided by crystal-clear goals. They yearn to gain insight, recommendations and answers that affect and EFFECT their product purchases, business practices and brand perceptions. And when business workers ask questions of public communities (vs. private communities created solely for company employees) it enables business representatives—that have established themselves as valued, trusted participants in online communities—to build relationships with those professionals and, many times, to create more prospects for their own business development pipelines.

This chain of events can produce a magical and fortuitous byproduct. It encourages the community members that acquired knowledge and had their questions answered by company representatives to ALSO spread favorable WOM (both offline and online) about them that creates yet *MORE* prospects for their organizations. And here's more magic: because those prospects, and the prospects that their WOM facilitated, are inbound leads, they decrease B2Bs' cost-per-acquisition which means B2Bs increase their profit margins. 

Phew! That was a long-winded way of saying that interacting in online communities improves B2Bs chances of building brand equity that increases their rates of generating leads at much lower costs (thus, higher profit margins!). And this I promise to my last breath: everyone is happy with higher profit margins. Like surprise pizza day at the office, there's not a sad face to be found.

OK, findings aside. Where, praytel, have I been saying, stressing, positing, opining, explaining and downright insisting on points that support these implications, and social media overall, for B2Bs? Well...

I've definitely hit on them here.

I said them rather boldly here.

Rallied the B2B ROI case studies here.

Darn if I didn't develop a fancy slideshow discussing the B2B social media business case here.

And I've talked many arguments to get the B2B boardroom on board over at MarketingProfs in a 2-Parter (here and here).

How about here? Yup! Even hit on how to overcome the most prevalent B2B social-media objections (lions and twitter and blogs, oh my!) right here.

Here I framed it from the vantage point of how age-old B2B behaviors are being met through new-age media. And speaking of old, I wrote a special paper to this point way back in January ’08 here. Farther back still to '06, how about this collage created by way of the marketing community's feedback on the value social media brings them?

Flash-forward to an article that aired yesterday over here at Inc. Magazine on "Lead Gen For The New Economy," where I remarked “[Prospects] take to the Web and seek online opinions shared from other professionals before they make purchases, and that feedback significantly influences their purchasing decisions.”

Also, in a couple weeks I have a series of B2B-centric social media video segments airing with other professionals. And since the segments were taped earlier this month, I can tell you now, that I said this stuff then, too. (As the camera doesn't lie.)

Wow. That equates to A LOT I've said on the matter. I'm sure glad those words weren't in vain; that certainly would have been awkward. Though this post would have been much shorter... and had a different title.

Many thanks to IDC for conducting the study and for sharing several key findings which shed more light on how social media produces fundamental changes for organizations, both to their internal processes and to their external, market-facing programs. While the productivity and revenue arguments for B2Bs to get in the social media game is certainly not a hypothesis that I alone have held, I'm pleased that the hypothesis holds water, continues to gain momentum and along with it, respect from the business community.

To B2Bs, I implore you: Please, take this study's findings and, moreover, the positive implications that these disruptive media have upon your businesses seriously—and take mobile media seriously, too. Because business professionals, which are B2Bs' target audience, are already quite serious about them.

And darn't, if for no other reason... because I told ya so. (Would I steer you wrong?)

The press release on the study with the findings referenced in this post is here and I encourage you to follow IDC's Michael Fauscette on twitter here. And for a whole lotta B2B Social Media, just go here.

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Comments

[Michael Fauscette]

Excellent points and as you might guess from the report I'm in vehement agreement. The survey results show that in only a years time the momentum for business use of social tools has increased dramatically. I believe that we will see significant business advantage to this new culture of social business and that those businesses that embrace the transformation will be the leaders in their markets.

Mike

[@sethgray]

Yep. Spot on. One thing that bugs the hell out of me is when people think of B2B as completely, utterly, totally, different than B2C. B2B folks are people too. They may have different goals than a person in a consumer market, but the fundamental human-ness is still there. These findings hint at that, I think. ok. back to Apple tablet watch... 80 minutes, but who's counting?

[Gifford Morley-Fletcher]

Don't you love it when a plan comes together? Especially when it's a Social Media marketing plan? Great post, and great news. Over here in blighty we've been generating great results for a few B2B clients, but there are still plenty of 'denyers', who come out with the good old 'Twitter is for celebrities with nothing else to do' line. I'm forwarding this to lots of people!