Social Media is Key to B2B Content Marketing

91% of B2B marketers now use social media as a content marketing tool.

B2B marketers are distributing their content on social networks more than ever before. A recent study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs confirms that content marketing remains a top priority for  B2B marketers, with the vast majority leveraging the practice as part of their marketing strategy. But many are uncertain about how to successfully employ the many tactics available to them.

Content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruptive — instead of directly advertising your products or services, you are communicating with your target audience by sharing valuable, free information. The core of this content strategy is the belief that buyers will be driven to do business with you if you provide valuable information to them on an ongoing basis.

If you have a website, a blog, or maintain a presence on Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks, you are a publisher. You need to think like one, and build a digital content marketing strategy that leverages what you create — blog posts, website articles, images, and multimedia like videos, slideshows, and infographics — to enhance consumer engagement and conversion rates.

This is the first in a series of posts about how to use content to market online and via social media. As an introduction to this topic, here are some interesting statistics from the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America:

More B2B marketers are using content marketing to achieve organizational goals:

Brand awareness, customer acquisition, and lead generation are the top B2B content marketing goals:

87% of B2B marketers use social media to distribute content — it is now the most popular content marketing tactic:

B2B marketers are using an average of 5 social distribution channels.

LinkedIn is the top social network when it comes to B2B content marketing. It’s interesting to note that Pinterest is now being used by more than 25% of B2B marketers

63% of B2B content marketers say that producing enough content is now their biggest challenge:

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