B2B Companies Struggling to Embrace Social Media

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Many business-to-business companies (B2B) have been left in the digital dust by consumer- oriented firms when it comes to embracing digital media.

According to research from global consulting firm Accenture, almost two-thirds of B2B marketing executives view social media as an "extremely important" or a "very important" channel to interact with customers, partners and stakeholders. However, only 7 percent of the survey group felt that their organization was leveraging social media very heavily, according to online marketing company eMarketer, which reported the story.

While most of the respondents reported using social media to some degree, 9 percent said they weren't using it at all.

Many of the barriers to B2B social media use seem to be housed in the upper levels of the organization. The need for investment in new tools and technology to make social media interaction a priority was cited by 48 percent of respondents. Another 38 percent said they needed better interaction with their sales, marketing or service departments. Chief executive officer and chief financial officer buy-in was also named as a problem, with 31 percent saying they need "increased CEO conviction" and 28 percent saying they need an increased budget to carry out successful social media marketing campaigns.

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