When it comes to participation in social media, business-to-business sellers fall behind all other merchants.
According to a breakdown of MCM Outlook 2012-13 results, less than two-thirds (66%) of merchants who said they cater primarily to a b-to-b audience are marketing themselves via social media channels.
In comparison, 76.5% of all MCM Outlook 2012-13 respondents said they are using social media to market themselves. That includes the 83.1% of respondents who identified themselves as business-to-consumer retailers, and 77.6% who said they sell to an even mix of b-to-b and b-to-c customers.
B-to-b sellers also fell behind their b-to-c counterparts on why they are using social media channels. For example, 78.6% of b-to-c respondents said they use social media to engage in conversation with customers and prospects, compared to 54.2% of b-to-b respondents.
Also, while 80% of b-to-c respondents said they use social media to monitor what consumers are saying about their brand, just 66.7% said they use social media for that reason.
And 40% of b-to-c respondents said they use social media to announce online offerings. Just 16.7% said they use social media for that reason.
The entire MCM Outlook 2012-13 survey report is available for download at https://multichannelmerchant.com/research/2012.