According to our B2B marketing survey, it should not take much to get ahead of your competition.

Manufacturers continue to incorporate social media into their overall industrial marketing programs,  but at different (read: slower) rates.

It’s somewhat surprising to me, but not completely unexpected, that some B2B decision makers still don’t think social media marketing is worth considering. In our recent survey of industrial manufacturers, nearly 25% responded by saying social media marketing was either not for them or not for industrial companies in general.

This attitude toward social media is dated, even for industrial manufacturers, who are often slow to adopt marketing technology.

It is likely the foundation for other deficiencies that our survey found in the way manufacturers approach social media.

A couple of other findings from our survey:

• Only about 30% of respondents reported making a real commitment to social media from a staffing perspective by using either time staff or an external firm, freelancer or subcontractor
• Only about half of respondents with social media programs were tracking the results of the campaign

Couple all of this with the rest of our survey responses that indicate cold-calling and trade advertising are more popular sales and marketing tactics that social media, and it’s easy to see that social is getting the short end of the stick.

Social media is the new kid on the block. We understand that. But a lot of B2B marketers are either willfully ignorant, or simply have no idea that manufacturers can benefit from a healthy stream of content coming from a Twitter account. Or from demonstration videos on YouTube.

As we’ve written before in our Industry Insight, Industrial Social Media Marketing: Using Technology to Generate B2B Leads,

Sharing the solutions to their problems has never been easier, as social media platforms and tools like HootSuite, SocialOomph and ManageFlitter have made it possible to manage multiple accounts at once and grow a following.

While your company may be late the the party, it would be foolish to continue with the mindset that social should take a backseat because “We haven’t needed it before, why do we need it now?” Now is the perfect time to develop a social media marketing strategy, while you can still gain an advantage on your competition.

Put the time and treasure into developing a social media plan that works for your company. You don’t need to be on every social media site off the bat, but I’d start with Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ramp up your commitment over time, track your results and don’t be afraid to contact CoreElement if you need a little help.

Photo credit: Thomas’s Pics via photopin cc