Summarising stats on B2B audience use of social media and best practice across Twitter and LinkedIn - update December 2013. Including a look at three new updates from November 2013 (LinkedIn showcase pages, Facebook updates to custom audience targeting and Twitter Ad updates).

1. SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS
AND USAGE
Update December 2013

2. THREE NEW LAUNCHES FROM
NOVEMBER 2013
One each for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook

3. LINKEDIN SHOWCASE PAGES
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Launched in November, these are more
flexible than product pages, more
targeted than company pages
The new showcase pages sit
‘underneath’ your company page and
let you provide a specific feed of new
stories to followers
Set them up for special interest areas
(like ours on B2B social media!)
More here:
http://blog.linkedin.com/2013/11/19/an
nouncing-linkedin-showcase-pages/

4. TWITTER ADS – NOW OPEN TO ALL
• In November,
Twitter opened up
its ad options to all
businesses –
making it easy to
set up either
promoted tweets
or to promote your
account

5. PROMOTED TWEETS
Lead gen ‘cards’ aren’t widely used yet but let you create flexible
calls to action to capture user email addresses directly from a tweet
https://blog.twitter.com/2013/lead-generation-card-now-availableto-all-advertisers-with-new-features
Promoted tweets have 2 relevant targeted options (or 3 if you know
which TV shows your audience watch!): by keyword (including
hashtags) or by types of user

6. FACEBOOK CUSTOM AUDIENCES
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Facebook custom audience ad targeting is
now available to all businesses
One option will let you upload a list of
customer/prospect email addresses and
target ads to them IF they use that same
email address to login to Facebook
We’re intrigued to see if it works for B2B
audiences…
More here:
https://www.facebook.com/business/news
/Custom-Audiences-Is-Now-Available-toEvery-Advertiser

7. RESEARCH ROUND-UP: SOCIAL
MEDIA AND OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

8. B2B DECISION MAKERS

9. B2B DECISION MAKERS
“One of the most startling revelations is that these
decision makers aren't just as likely to use social media
as the average user: they score well above average. In
fact, when it comes to a network like LinkedIn, senior
decision makers are twice as likely to use or contribute
there (17.3% of respondents versus an average of
8.6%).”
Reaching Key Decision Makers Through Social Networks
http://slidesha.re/18lyj6W

10. B2B DECISION MAKERS PC VS MOBILE

11. CIOS AND SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE
“Only about 10 percent of CIOs in the top companies — Fortune 250 and
and Global 250 — actively use public social networks. Within that group,
only four CIOs write blogs, and more than one-third either do not have
LinkedIn profiles, or have profiles with fewer than 100 connections.”
The Top 25 Social CIOs in the Fortune 250
http://harmon.ie/blog/04-04-2012

12. THE TOP 25 SOCIAL CIOS IN THE FORTUNE 250
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Oliver Bussmann, Global CIO SAP
Benjamin Fried, Google CIO
Abraham Galan, Pemex CIO
Ian Alderton, CIO Corporate Banking, Royal Bank of
Scotland
Anthony Scott, Corporate VP and CIO, Microsoft
Wayne Shurst, EVP and CIO, Supervalu
Ramon Baez, VP and CIO, Kimberly-Clark
Cora Carmody, SVP and CIO, Jacobs Engineering Group
Mike McNamara, CIO, Tesco
Kenneth Corriveau, CIO, Omnicom Group
Michael Kirschner, SVP and CIO, Office Depot
David Smoley, CIO, Flextronics
Carol Zierhoffer, VP and CIO, Xerox
Denis Edwards, SVP and Global CIO, Manpower
• David McCue, Corporate VP and CIO, Computer
Sciences
• Rebecca Jacoby, SVP and CIO, Cisco Systems
• Mike McClaskey, SVP and CIO, DISH network
• Paul Moulton, EVP and CIO, Costco Wholesale
• Robin Johson, Global CIO, Dell
• Michelle McKenna, CIO, Constellation Energy
• Jeanette Horan
• Matthew Carey, EVP and CIO, Home Depot
• Donagh Herlihy, SVP and CIO Avon Products
• Dana Deasy, CIO, BP
• Benjamin Williams, CIO and VP, BI&T, Devon Energy
Special Mention:
• Casey Coleman, CIO, US General Services
• Sabine Everaet, CIO, Coca-Cola Europe

13. IT PURCHASING GOES SOCIAL
Awareness phase
Planning phase
54% of IT decision-makers are influenced by social media
during the “awareness phase”
46% of IT decision-makers are influenced by social media
during the “planning phase”
47% of IT decision-makers are influenced by social media
during the “select phase”
Select phase
44% of IT decision-makers are influenced by social media
during the “implementation phase”
Implementation phase
http://marketing.linkedin.com/efficiency-and-relevance

14. TWITTER

15. HOW TWEETS CAN HAVE AN IMPACT ON B2B TECH
AUDIENCES
Compete examined the online activity of more than 6,000 Twitter users as they visited more than
400 B2B tech sites in late 2012.
Twitter Touts Its B2B Lead-Gen Capabilities http://bit.ly/1ioWeXc

16. TWITTER AND CTR
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The average click-through rate (CTR) for a link shared on Twitter is about 1.6%, BUT—the average CTR drops
as one’s number of Twitter followers increases. Accounts with 50-1,000 followers generate a better-than-6%
average CTR; the rate drops to less than 0.5% on average for accounts with 10,000 or more followers. (Bit
Rebels)
•
During the work week, Tuesday has the highest CTR (1.8%) and Friday the lowest (under 1.5%). (Bit Rebels)
•
During the day, CTRs are highest between 8:00-10:00 am and 4:00-6:00 pm. (Bit Rebels)
http://bit.ly/ShVyKg

17. PROMOTED ACCOUNTS AND TWEETS – HUBSPOT
CASE STUDY
By connecting with a highly relevant audience through Promoted Accounts and increasing engagement
with Promoted Tweets, HubSpot experienced gains in sales, conversion rates and ROI, as well as a
significantly lower cost-per-lead.
Twitter Success Story http://bit.ly/1bFDrbo
150%increase in
sales through
Twitter46%lower
Twitter46%lower
cost-per-lead
32%ROI

18. LINKEDIN

19. B2B: LINKEDIN DRIVES MORE TRAFFIC
“On average, social media drove 5% of traffic
to all B2B sites, however, it drove 17% of
traffic to blogs and only 1.1% of traffic to
commercial B2B websites. When they looked
at the traffic by site, 90% of the social traffic
was driven by the big three networks, with
half of it coming from LinkedIn.”
REPORTS: LinkedIn is the Most Effective B2B Social
Network http://bit.ly/19ft1v5

20. B2B: LINKEDIN DRIVES MORE LEADS
In a study of over 5,000 businesses, HubSpot found
that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest
visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3
times higher than both Twitter and Facebook. This
was a mix of both B2B and B2C companies, but the
large sample size clearly shows that a focus on
driving leads from LinkedIn works.
REPORTS: LinkedIn is the Most Effective B2B Social Network
http://bit.ly/19ft1v5

21. SOURCE OF LINKEDIN REFERRAL VISITORS –
LEADFORMIX STUDY
Source Of LinkedIn Referral Visitors
REPORTS:
A Research Report For B2b Marketers By Leadformix
http://bit.ly/Hm0BqT
Please note:
• LinkedIn Answers no longer exist
• Data from 2010

22. LINKEDIN ADVERTISING
LinkedIn Ads allows B2B advertisers to create advertising campaigns with very high-level targeting options:
General Segmentation
In-depth Segmentation
Location
Age
School
Gender
Interests
Company
Industry
Job Title
Skills
Furthermore, we can edit as we go — testing various targeting combinations and deciding whether we want
increased segmentation for narrower targeting or broader audience categories. These highly-customizable
segmentation options can be used across all LinkedIn ad offerings.

23. HOW TO LEVERAGE LINKEDIN GROUPS TO GAIN MORE
INFLUENCE
#1 Join right groups
#2 Listen and participate
#3 Start your own discussion
#4 Share your own content
#5 Don’t sell

24. LINKEDIN GROUPS CXO/CIO/CEO/MD/CTO:
• CXO – 100,055 members, very low interaction/high activity
• Chief Information Officer (CIO) Network – The group for CIOs - 89,622 members, good interaction
levels/moderate activity
• TOP LEADERS/ EXECUTIVES - CXO/ CEO/ CIO/ COO/ CFO/ President/ VP/ AVP/ Director/ Head/ Managers 72,032 members, low interaction levels/moderate activity
• CIO Forum – 54,655 members, good interaction levels/low to moderate activity
• The Linked CXO / President, CEO, COO, CIO, CTO, MD, VP, Director 's – 27,746 members, low interaction levels
and low activity
• FOUNDER, CEO, CXO, COO, CKO, CFO, CMO, CAO, CVO, CDO, CRO, CLO, CSO, CIO, CTO, MD, VP – 16,534
good interaction levels and low activity
• CDO/CIO/CTO Leadership Council – 9,289 members, low interaction levels and low activity
• CIO Community – 7,880 members, low interaction levels and low activity
• CXO Community - CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CTO, CAO, CSO, and MD – 7,035 members, low interaction levels and
low activity

25. LINKEDIN GROUPS CSO/CMO AND HR:
CSO/CMO:
• Sales / Marketing Executives (CSO/CMO) - 122,496 members, good interaction levels/moderate activity
• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Network - #1 Group for CMOs – 53,773 members, very good interaction
levels/high activity
• CMO Executive Network – 5,952 members, low interaction levels and low activity
• Forbes CMO Network – 4,964 members, low interaction levels and low activity
HR:
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HR Directors / Managers - 4,272 members, low interaction levels and low activity
HR Directors International Group – 1,723 members, low interaction levels and low activity
HR Directors Club – 1,516 members, low interaction levels and low activity
European HR directors – 758 members, low interaction levels and low activity

26. LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGE
“Informative, useful updates receive the highest engagement rates because that’s the information
members expect from companies they follow on LinkedIn. After all, your followers are active on
LinkedIn because they want to be more productive and successful professionals.”
LinkedIn Best Practices http://linkd.in/Sv1Yqj
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
60%
53%
43%
Industry insights
Company news New products and
services

27. LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGE BEST PRACTICE
Post at least 20
status updates per
month to maximize
your reach to
approximately 60%
or more of your
unique audience
each month.
Best-in-class
marketers are
posting 3-4 status
updates per
day, per audience
20% of followers
are typically
reached with one
status update.
LinkedIn Best Practices http://linkd.in/Sv1Yqj