For those who once thought social media was just for the basement bloggers and those newfangled e-retailers, sit on this stat for a second: B2B marketers (we’re talking the top five Fortune 500 companies) spent $11 million on social marketing in 2009, and that number is set to increase by 491 percent, to $54 million, in 2014.
According to a new study from the University of Massachusetts’ Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, four of the top five Fortune 500 companies “consistently post on their Twitter accounts.” And of those 500 companies, the industry with the most Tweets? None other than insurance companies! Those representing the insurance category include Allstate and Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, among others. The insurance category even beat out food production and consumer products industry for the total number of Twitter accounts, such as McDonald’s and Walgreens.
Even more interesting, the companies ranking in the top 100 of the Fortune 500s were the most likely to be active Twitterers than those in the lower rankings.
The numbers demonstrate an undeniably explosive growth in the social media world for B2B corporations, and a generous tilt in marketing budgets towards the social side. As mobile and social media marketing trends continue to climb, the only question that remains is “who’s next?”
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Twitter could so easily be a customer service tool and nothing more for insurers. Seems like Liberty Mutual really gets it – I just checked their page, and they have more replies than posts.
Sarah,
Agreed! Thanks for your comments. Businesses of all sizes are using Twitter as solely a customer service tool, for example Best Buy has a separate account for their Twelpforce that has nearly 25,000 followers. This customer service-oriented account even has more followers than Best Buy’s Official Twitter account! Both B2Bs and B2Cs must all think about the power that lies behind engaging customers online. In the words of Twitter CEO, Evan Williams, “[Social media] is about reducing walls between people who have influence and those who they influence.”
Thank you,
Abby