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Win Free Tickets to Social Media Marketing World 2013

social media reviews

*****UPDATE: Congrats to Eric Diamonstein, winner of the comment contest. See his winning comment here. We also congratulate Kim Morrison, our Twitter winner. Our winners are coming from Australia and the United Kingdom respectively.****

Want to win a free ticket to the industry’s largest social media marketing conference of the year?

Social Media Examiner has worked hard to bring you our very first physical conference.

And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Social Media Marketing World 2013 is the world’s largest physical social media conference dedicated to help marketers and business owners master social media marketing.


Watch this video for a quick overview.

Over 60 of the world’s most respected social media marketing experts will share their strategies with you—and you can meet them face to face.

Presenters include Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Chris Brogan, Jay Baer, Mitch Joel, John Jantsch, Michael Stelzner, Dave Kerpen, Lee Odden, Mark Schaefer, Mario Sundar, Cliff Ravenscraft, Jesse Stay, Joe Pulizzi, Michael Brito, Marcus Sheridan, Ric Dragon, Brian Carter, Amy Porterfield, Nichole Kelly, Derek Halpern and Pat Flynn, just to mention a few!

Check out some of the brands presenting:

There will be 49 sessions presented in 5 tracks spread over 2 days. Topics will include tips on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, social strategy, the psychology of social media, measuring social activities, community management, selling with social and content marketing.

We expect to sell out before the event starts on April 7, 2013. People attending represent large and small companies just like yours and some attendees are flying in from places like Australia, New Zealand, Peru, India and Ireland.

One of the best parts of this year’s conference is the cool networking opportunities. Not only will we have a Networking Plaza where you can connect with experts and peers between sessions and during dedicated networking times, but we also have two parties planned that are designed for professional networking. Learn more about the Networking Cruise and the Opening Night Networking Party here.

How can you win tickets?

We have two free tickets to the conference, valued at $1297 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 190,000 of your peers!

Two ways to win

There are two tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter Entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

I want to win a ticket to Social Media Marketing World http://bit.ly/winSMMW13 via @smexaminer #winSMMW13

You can tweet up to two times per dayEach tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winSMMW13 hashtag included.

#2: Written Entry

The winner gets a free ticket, two free nights at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (190,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write about your biggest social media marketing challenge and why you should win a free ticket in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges—Mari Smith (social media speaker and trainer), Pat Flynn (founder, Smart Passive Income) and Mike Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner)—will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

  1. You can enter to win either or both prizes.
  2. Tweets must contain #winSMMW13.
  3. The deadline is Wednesday, February 13, 2013, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
  4. If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
  5. No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

Win Free Tickets to Content Success Summit 2013

social media reviews

UPDATE: Congrats to Shea Craig, winner of 2 free tickets, and Amie Baumwell, winner of 1 free ticket, to Content Success Summit. Here is Shea’s winning entry.

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online content marketing event of the year?

Social Media Examiner has worked hard to bring you our very first Content Success Summit.

And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Content Success Summit 2013 is a large online conference dedicated to help marketers and business owners master content marketing.

More than 400 businesses have already signed up; these are small businesses just like yours that want to learn how to develop a content marketing strategy and the latest trends.

Twenty-two of the world’s most respected content marketing experts will share their strategies with you.

Your instructors are the world’s top content marketing experts.

These include 13 book authors: Joe Pulizzi (co-author, Get Content Get Customers), Ann Handley (co-author, Content Rules), Michael Hyatt (author, Platform), Michael Stelzner (author, Launch), Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author, Return on Influence), Gini Dietrich (co-author, Marketing in the Round), David Siteman Garland (author, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper), DJ Waldow (co-author, The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing), James Wedmore (author, The YouTube Marketing Book), Stanford Smith (co-author, Born to Blog), Lewis Howes (co-author, LinkedWorking); as well as Derek Halpern (Social Triggers), Pat Flynn (Smart Passive Income) and Marcus Sheridan (The Sales Lion)—just to mention a few.

Presentation topics include establishing your content strategy, making your content great, blogging, video marketing, podcasting, email marketing, creating online courses, marketing with webinars and much more! Check out all the sessions.

At last summer’s summit, 98% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.

How can you win tickets?

We have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 190,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win:

There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter Entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

I want to win a ticket to Content Success Summit http://bit.ly/winCSS via: @smexaminer #winCSS13

You can tweet up to two times per dayEach tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winCSS13 hashtag included.

#2: Written Entry

The winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner newsletter (190,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write about your biggest content marketing challenge in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges (Joe Pulizzi, founder, Content Marketing Institute and Mike Stelzner, founder, Social Media Examiner) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

  1. You can enter to win either or both prizes.
  2. Tweets must contain #winCSS13.
  3. The deadline is Monday, January 14, 2013, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
  4. If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
  5. No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

4 Reasons You Should Attend Social Media Marketing World in San Diego

Do you attend in-person conferences?

Imagine an event where you rub shoulders with the social media pros you follow and admire online.

Then imagine networking with 1,000 fellow marketers in beautiful San Diego, California.

Now add the waterfront San Diego Marriott Marquis hotel, an opening-night party surrounded by dinosaur relics, an evening networking cruise on Southern California’s largest private yacht and 49 expert-led sessions.

That’s a small sampling of what’s in store for you at Social Media Examiner’s new conference: Social Media Marketing World!

What? Social Media Examiner is hosting a physical conference?

Social Media Examiner is known for its signature online summits like Social Media Success Summit and Facebook Success Summit.

event montage

And yes, these events bring together the world’s top social media experts and entrepreneurs, and gather huge worldwide audiences.

But social media marketing doesn’t need to be strictly an online experience. There’s great value when you make those online relationships come alive in person.

“This is a unique opportunity to connect face-to-face with the top social media marketing experts in the industry, and to hang out with other like-minded professionals, many of whom you’re connected with online,” says Michael Stelzner, CEO and founder of Social Media Examiner. “Meeting these people and developing relationships opens up the kind of opportunities that simply can’t happen online.”

Marketers always have numerous opportunities to attend online events, but rarely do they get a chance to experience a one-of-a-kind physical event that delivers the experience of a lifetime.

Until now. Now the organization you trust for highly valuable content is bringing only the best presenters to its premier conference, Social Media Marketing World.

Social Media Marketing Meets ‘America’s Finest City’

san diego marriottRecognizing the need for actual face-to-face interactions among marketing professionals from around the world, Michael Stelzner and his team at Social Media Examiner have designed the largest physical social media marketing conference—Social Media Marketing World 2013!

And it takes place in ‘America’s Finest City,’ San Diego, California!

San Diego boasts 70 miles of pristine beaches, a dazzling array of world-class family attractions and wonderful weather all year round, which makes it a truly unforgettable experience for everyone.

This gorgeous setting will provide the backdrop for the historic mega-conference that will take place at the bayfront San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina on April 7, 8 and 9, 2013.

The conference is designed to inspire you with amazing content and empower you with the smartest social media marketing ideas and strategies.

Social Media Marketing World—an Exceptional Conference

Apart from visiting one of the most beautiful destinations in the world, making valuable professional connections and enjoying an exceptional experience, here are four other reasons why you should attend Social Media Marketing World 2013.

#1: Meet the Experts

meet the experts

Over the years, you’ve basked in golden advice from the top industry experts via blogs, podcasts, videos, webinars and Social Media Examiner’s online success summits.

Well, how would you like to finally meet the experts face to face?

All of the experts you’ve come to respect and admire will be in one place.

Presenters include Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Chris Brogan, Jay Baer, John Jantsch, Michael Stelzner, Dave Kerpen, Lee Odden, Jason Falls, Mark Schaefer, Mario Sundar, Cliff Ravenscraft, Jesse Stay, Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley, Marcus Sheridan, Ric Dragon, Brian Carter, Amy Porterfield, Nichole Kelly, Derek Halpern, Pat Flynn and authorities from more than a dozen major brands including Sony, Zappos.com, AT&T, SAP, Intel, Cisco, Neutrogena and Salesforce.com, just to mention a few!

#2: In-Person Networking With Like-Minded Peers From Around the World

At Social Media Marketing World, you’ll make priceless professional connections that will last a lifetime.

One thousand marketers are coming to San Diego from all over the world. Attendees are already coming from Norway, Dubai, France, Australia, Ireland, Costa Rica, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, as well as all parts of the United States.

The networking environment will be a one-of-a-kind experience. Here’s what you can expect:

museum1. Structured networking after keynotes and lunch (so you don’t have to miss any training sessions) and a catered opening-night evening party at the historic San Diego Natural History Museum. Here you’ll tour the museum, enjoy food, drinks and entertainment, and of course network with your peers while surrounded by dinosaur relics!

cruise2. On Monday night, prepare to set sail aboard the Inspiration Hornblower—the largest private yacht in Southern California and the venue for the exclusive San Diego Bay Networking Cruise.

This will be one voyage you’ll never forget! Cruising along San Diego Bay by night, you’ll be treated to fun music, delicious desserts and refreshing cocktails. Why not grab a drink and get to know some of the folks you’ve connected with online, as you take in the breathtaking views of downtown San Diego from the open-air sky deck?

3. If you want a quiet place to sit and talk, or perhaps do some video interviews, the Networking Plaza will be available for you around the clock. This is a huge centrally located space that can hold hundreds of people and is equipped with round tables, computer charging stations and video filming stations. So anytime you want to do some serious networking, this space is available to you 24/7!

#3: Highly Valuable Content

event venueTake in highly valuable and inspiring pitch-free content—a trademark of Social Media Examiner—from 49 expert-led marketing sessions covering social tactics, social strategy, community management and content marketing.

Here’s a quick glimpse of the amazing content you can expect at Social Media Marketing World 2013:

  • Social Tactics Track: Find out the best and newest ways to market your business with social media. Pick up actionable tips to improve your marketing with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.
  • Social Strategy Track: Discover new strategies that will draw ideal customers to your business. You’ll soak in sessions on social strategy, the psychology of social media, measuring social activities, organizational transformation and much more.
  • Community Management and Business-Building Track: Discover how to build communities and ultimately sell your products and services via social media. Track sessions include Facebook community management, developing community with blogs, building local businesses with social media and selling with social.
  • Content Marketing Track: See how successful bloggers and podcasters build and maintain content that their customers love sharing. You’ll discover how to leverage content to sell, how to move people to action with content and tips for excelling with blogging and podcasting.

#4: Make it a Vacation

Social Media Marketing World starts Sunday evening on April 7 and extends through Tuesday, April 9, 2013. Why not stay a few extra days and make a vacation out of your trip?

If you’ve never visited San Diego, here are some things you can do while you’re here:

Be sure to watch this video.

The average weather in San Diego is 70° F year-round. San Diego also offers beaches, surfing, the world-famous San Diego Zoo, Sea World, LEGOLAND, San Diego Safari Park and tons more!

Keep in mind too, that an event of this caliber would normally cost thousands of dollars, and for sure there are smaller events out there that offer much less, and yet cost more. With all of these experiences and activities to enjoy in San Diego, this is the kind of deal you don’t want to pass up.

Want to Save Money?

For a limited time, you can save hundreds of dollars off the regular registration price. Click here to register!

What do you think? Does this sound like the kind of conference that might interest you? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Win Free Tickets to Facebook Success Summit 2012

social media reviews

********UPDATE: Congratulations to Marc Ensign, the winner of 2 free tickets for this entry, and Melissa Toppenberg, the winner of the Twitter contest and 1 free ticket.*****

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online Facebook marketing event of the year?

Social Media Examiner has worked hard to bring you our third-annual Facebook Success Summit.

And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Facebook Success Summit 2012 is a large online conference dedicated to helping marketers and business owners master Facebook marketing.

More than 500 businesses have already signed up, including Rubio’s, HP, Wells Fargo, Darden, Oklahoma State University, Johnson & Johnson, SAP, Fairfield Residential and hundreds of smaller businesses.

Twenty of the world’s most respected Facebook marketing experts will share their strategies with you.

Hear from Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Dave Kerpen (author, Likeable Social Media), Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), John Haydon (co-author, Facebook Marketing for Dummies), Brian Carter (author, The Like Economy), Mark Schaefer (author, Return on Influence), Chris Treadaway (co-author, Facebook Marketing)Jesse Stay (author, Facebook Application Development for Dummies), Andrea Vahl (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Phyllis Khare (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) and experts from Campbell’s SoupIntel24 Hour Fitness and Autodesk—just to mention a few.

Presentation topics include Facebook marketing strategy, growing and managing a Facebook following, generating leads and selling with Facebook, news feed optimization, metrics and analytics, Facebook promotions and advertising and much more! Check out all of the sessions.

At last summer’s summit, 98% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.

How can you win tickets?

We have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 170,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win:

There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter Entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

I want to win a ticket to Facebook Success Summit http://bit.ly/winFBSS12 via: @smexaminer #winFBSS12

You can tweet up to two times per dayEach tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winFBSS12 hashtag included.

#2: Written Entry

The winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (170,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write about your biggest Facebook marketing challenge in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges (Amy Porterfield, Phyllis Khare and Andrea Vahl, co-authors of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

  • You can enter to win either or both prizes.
  • Tweets must contain #winFBSS12.
  • The deadline is Friday, September 21, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
  • If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
  • No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

Top 10 Small Business Facebook Pages: 2012 Winners!

social media viewpointsSmall businesses can stand out in a big way with Facebook.

If you’re looking for some creative examples of Facebook pages from the small guys, look no further!

More than 1,800 nominations came in from our contest. These represent over 500 small businesses.

Our panel of Facebook experts carefully reviewed the nominees and finalists, analyzing their landing pages, engagement, reader involvement and creative use of promotions (among other things).

None of these businesses have huge budgets, yet they all have achieved amazing success. The following are the winners of Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 Small Business Facebook Pages for 2012:

#1: How to Market Your Horse Business

How to Market Your Horse Business is an award-winning social media marketing company focused on horse businesses and other small businesses.

Fans: 6,628

how to market your horse business

What the judges liked:

  • Amazing engagement
  • Good use of pinning and highlighting
  • Effective use of contests and spotlighting contest entrants
  • Good visual branding with apps and cover photo
  • Answers every post
  • Publishes a good variety of content

#2: Recruit Military

Recruit Military is a military-to-civilian recruiting firm, helping veterans and transitioning military service members and military spouses find civilian jobs, buy businesses and improve their education.

Fans: 42,022

recruit military

What the judges liked:

  • Great use of images and quotes
  • Love the way they are using Facebook events for their job fairs
  • Clever use of “Find a Job Friday”
  • Excellent combination of posts on military facts, pictures and resources

#3: Talking Finger

Talking Finger is a social media marketing company.

Fans: 3,289

talking finger

What the judges liked:

  • Great fan engagement
  • Nice use of apps—especially love the TF Services app
  • Good combination of fun posts and valuable posts on social media
  • Superb visual branding, particularly on apps

#4: Earthegy

Earthegy is retailer of ancient gems and modern jewelry.

Fans: 10,169

earthegy

What the judges liked:

  • Cool use of shopping page
  • Good fan engagement with photos
  • Great use of discount promotion
  • Lots of recommendations
  • Rewards app is a smart way to get continual engagement

#5: The Chicken Chick at Egg Carton Labels by ADozenGirlz

The Chicken Chick at Egg Carton Labels by ADozenGirlz is a retailer of chicken egg carton labels and other chicken-related products.

Fans: 14,376

chicken chick

What the judges liked:

  • Blog app is very well done
  • Great niche site with tons of tips and images
  • Fantastic engagement
  • Good use of contest
  • Good variety of posts demonstrating fun, chicken care, chicken crafts and personality.

#6: PoolSupplyWorld

PoolSupplyWorld is an online retailer of parts and products for swimming pools and spas.

Fans: 53,112

pool supply world

What the judges liked:

  • Great timeline cover photo
  • Coupon option is well done
  • Underwater camera giveaway aligns well with niche
  • Good use of call to action in posts to spark engagement

#7: Social Media Branding with Kim Garst

Social Media Branding with Kim Garst is a social media marketing business.

Fans: 23,001

kim garst

What the judges liked:

  • Great page with good use of photos
  • Engaging posts with good business motivation
  • Excellent visual branding

#8: Legendary Whitetails

Legendary Whitetails is a family-owned business selling unique casual apparel, gifts and gear for whitetail hunters through their catalog and website.

Fans: 677,079

deer gear

What the judges liked:

  • Great cover photo
  • Excellent use of apps
  • 10 Bucks effectively gets more fans with the Reveal tab
  • Fantastic use of photos
  • They get lots of shares because they ask for them

#9: Dog Pack Snacks

Dog Pack Snacks is a producer and retailer for human-grade dog treats.

Fans: 1,732

dog pack snacks

What the judges liked:

  • Great use of photos—especially the Social Media Examiner tribute
  • Dog biscuit app works great
  • Nice-looking storefront and email opt-in
  • Good variety of posts—particularly like the mix of voices between dog and owner

#10: Chocolate for Breakfast

Chocolate for Breakfast is the business page for Sue Ann Gleason, a culinary nutritionist and marketing strategist.

Fans: 9,858

choco for breakfast

What the judges liked:

  • Outstanding engagement on page—over 60% Talking About This
  • Good use of photos
  • Entertaining, educational and inspiring posts—particularly like the use of recipes
  • Good opt-in app

Congratulations to the winners. Be sure to check out these amazing pages!

The Prizes
Each of our winners receives the following:

A free pass to Facebook Success Summit 2012: Each company wins a pass to attend the web’s largest online Facebook marketing conference.
logo
The badge of distinction: If you’re a winner, you can post the image you see here on your blog or Facebook page and please link back to this page.

A special thanks to our judges—Amy Porterfield, Andrea Vahl and Phyllis Khare (co-authors of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) for their participation!

What do you think? Share your questions and comments in the box below.

Nominate Your Favorite Small Business Facebook Page: Top 10 Contest

social media reviewsSocial Media Examiner is accepting nominations for its second-annual “Top 10 Small Business Facebook Page” contest.

Do you have a favorite small business Facebook page? Keep reading to learn how you can nominate it.

The winners will be promoted in our 164,000-reader newsletter and announced here.

How to Nominate

Please make a single nomination by leaving a comment below and include why you like the page (only your first nomination counts).

Be sure to include a link to the Facebook page you’re nominating.

To make the cut, a Facebook page must be (1) owned by a small business and (2) receive at least two nominations.

How it Works

We track and score the nominations, and then our panel of judges awards the top 10 small business Facebook pages.

The Judges: Our panel of Facebook experts includes Amy Porterfield, Andrea Vahl and Phyllis Khare (co-authors of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies).

amy porterfieldandrea vahlphyllis khare

Winners will be selected based on the quality of their Facebook pages, the frequency and quality of their Timeline activities and fan engagement. Think part readers’ choice and part Oscars.

The winners will be announced here in early September and also in our newsletter. Make your nomination by August 20, 2012.

In addition to amazing exposure, each of the top 10 winners will also get free tickets to Facebook Success Summit 2012—the web’s largest online Facebook marketing conference.

Note that our panel of judges will make the winning selections. Their decisions are subjective and will be final.

Enter Now

Enter your nomination right now in the comment box below (scroll all the way to the bottom of this page) and be sure to let your friends know about this contest.

Win Free Tickets: Blogging Fundamentals for Business

***UPDATE: Congratulations to our winners! Stacie Walker won 2 tickets for her winning comment and Phil Mendelowitz won 1 ticket in the Twitter contest.

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online blogging workshop for businesses?

Social Media Examiner founder Michael Stelzner will be teaching a step-by-step course to help your business thrive with blogging.

And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Blogging Fundamentals for Business is an online workshop that will empower you as a marketer and business owner to attract quality prospects, elevate your industry prominence and improve your sales with blogging.

And this event takes place entirely online!

This fully online workshop will help you master the fundamentals of successful business blogging and is taught by the founder of one of the world’s largest business blogs—Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner, author of the book Launch.

He will cover blogging strategy, creating great content, blogging metrics and technology, launching (or relaunching) a blog and blog promotion tactics.  Click here to learn more.

How can you win tickets?

bloggingFund sign

We’re giving away three free tickets to the workshop, valued at $297 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 156,000+ of your peers! And remember, this is an online event—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win:

There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

retweet this#1: Twitter Entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

I want to win a ticket to Blogging Fundamentals for Business http://bit.ly/winBlog via: @smexaminer #winBLOGFD

You can tweet up to two times per dayEach tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winBLOGFD hashtag included.

#2: Written Entry

This winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (156,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write about your biggest blogging challenge in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judge (Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner) will select the winning entry. His decision is subjective and final.

What you need to know:

  • You can enter to win either or both prizes.
  • Tweets must contain #winBLOGFD.
  • The deadline is Friday, June 29, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
  • If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
  • No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

How B2B Marketers Use Social Media: New Research

social media researchDo you primarily market to other businesses?

Are you wondering, “How does social media work differently for B2B businesses?”

In the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Mike Stelzner asked marketers how they’re using social media.

More than 1900 business-to-business (B2B) marketers shared their insights on what’s working with social media marketing and where they’d like to improve.

In this article I’m going to focus on those areas where B2B marketers have significantly different experiences than their consumer-focused counterparts.

Let’s dig in.

B2B Marketers Show Confidence in Social Media

Of the B2B marketers who took this year’s survey, over 93% use social media to market their businesses. While that’s slightly below their consumer-focused brethren (95.2%), there’s been a significant increase since the 2010 survey when only 88% of B2B marketers responded affirmatively.

use social media for marketing

Just over 93% of B2B marketers are using social media for marketing purposes (slightly behind B2C marketers).

B2B Marketers Have More Experience

Based on the results of this survey, marketers from B2B brands are more likely to have 3 or more years’ experience than their B2C counterparts (18% of B2B vs. 14% of B2C).

experience comopared

B2B marketers bring more long-term experience to social media marketing than B2C, but lag behind slightly in the 1- to 3-year category.

Social Media Is Getting Results

When asked about the benefits of social media marketing, B2B marketers noted the following:

  • Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media (compared to 45% of B2C marketers)
  • Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts (compared to 50% of B2C marketers)
  • B2B marketers are more able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts (nearly 69% vs. 60% of B2C marketers)
  • The one area where B2B marketers significantly lag behind their B2C counterparts is in developing a loyal fan base. 63% of B2C marketers found social media helped them develop loyal fans, compared to only 53% of B2B marketers.

Observation:

It’s worth considering why more businesses aren’t seeing a direct correlation between their social media efforts and increased sales or reduced marketing expenses. It likely ties back to the #1 question marketers want answered: “How do I measure the effect of social media marketing on my business?”

This question was asked by over 20% of those surveyed. Businesses won’t know if they are seeing results if they don’t know how to measure their efforts.

For some ideas on this, see Nichole Kelly’s article called 5 Tips for Moving Social Media Leads into the Sales Funnel.

What Tools Do B2B Marketers Use?

While almost all B2C marketers (over 96%) use Facebook as a marketing tool, a significantly fewer 87% of B2B brands do the same according to this study. This barely surpasses the adoption of LinkedIn (86.6%) and Twitter (84%).

B2B marketers are also more likely to use blogs (65% vs. 57%) and Google+ (44% vs. 36%).

tools used

B2B marketers use Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and Google+ more than B2C marketers.

Observation:

I recently wrote an article showing how pervasively Facebook has penetrated the social media market. Given this, it may seem surprising to see B2B marketers valuing other platforms so highly, but these experienced marketers clearly understand where their target audience spends their time.

Do you know where your audience hangs out online?

Where Will B2B Marketers Invest More Time?

There is little difference in how B2B and B2C marketers will increase their time investment except when it comes to Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging.

In 2012, B2B marketers are far more likely to increase their use of LinkedIn. In fact, over 76% of B2B marketers will increase their use, compared to only 55% of B2C marketers. These are both increases from 2011 (71% of B2B and 51% of B2C).

71% of B2B marketers plan to invest more time in blogging (compared to 65% of B2C marketers).

A significant majority of marketers will increase their use of Facebook this year, but B2B marketers (68%) lag behind B2C companies (76%).

What Do B2B Marketers Want to Learn?

If you offer educational products or consulting for B2B marketers, you’ll be interested to know that B2B marketers want to learn about Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter, in that order. Only in the case of LinkedIn does their interest surpass that of B2C marketers (56% of B2B vs. 50% of B2C).

The top topics B2B marketers want to learn about (compared to B2C) are:

  • Measuring effectiveness of social media (77% vs. 78%)
  • Converting activities to sales (72% vs. 69%)
  • Discovering best social media tactics (69% vs. 74%)

Only in the case of converting activities to sales do B2B marketers exceed B2C marketers in their desire to learn.

Other Forms of B2B Marketing

It has been properly noted that many other marketing tools (like event marketing) are very social. Social media didn’t suddenly make marketers social. Nor does it replace such valuable tools as email and search engine optimization.

Heidi Cohen quips that we couldn’t have social media without email; how else would you log in to all of these platforms?

That understood, B2B marketers have a somewhat different experience marketing outside of social media. Only in the areas of email and press releases do they invest similarly.

B2B marketers are significantly more likely to use search engine optimization (67% vs. 62% of B2C), event marketing (68% vs. 60%) and webinars (28% vs. 12%).

B2B marketers are much less likely to use direct mail (37% vs. 45%), online ads (33% vs. 43%), sponsorships (25% vs. 31%), television ads (4% vs. 17%), radio ads (8% vs. 25%), and print display ads (25% vs. 47%).

other forms

B2B marketers have very different marketing strategies outside of social media.

In terms of future plans for these platforms, B2B marketers plan to increase their use of search engine optimization (69%), event marketing (62%) and email (61%). These are similar to B2C marketers’ responses, except that event marketing is far less important for B2C (51%).

Businesses Are Social Too

In studying history, one can see countless mistakes made by governments and businesses when they forget to view citizens and employees as human beings. In social media marketing it’s important to remember that other businesses are comprised of real people who behave socially (online and offline).

As demonstrated by this year’s industry report, many B2B marketers have found ways to connect with their audiences. How is it going for you?

What do you think? Please share your experiences and questions in the box below.

Win Free Tickets to Social Media Success Summit 2012

social media reviews

***UPDATE*** Congrats to Joy Dekkers and Taylor Howe, the winners of this free ticket contest. See Joy’s winning comment here.

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online social media marketing event of the year?

Social Media Examiner has worked hard to bring you our fourth-annual Social Media Success Summit. This is our best event ever! And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Social Media Success Summit 2012  is a large online conference dedicated to helping marketers and business owners master social media marketing.

More than 1400 businesses have already signed up, including Wells Fargo, Motorola, Kraft Foods, Fox Broadcasting, Autodesk, Salesforce.com, Hubbell, American Heart Association, NASA, Marriott, Vanguard, HP, Verizon Wireless, McGraw-Hill, and hundreds of smaller businesses.

Twenty-seven of the world’s most respected social media experts will share their strategies with you.

Hear from Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group), Chris Brogan (author, Google+ for Business), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Brian Solis (author, Engage), Jay Baer (co-author, The Now Revolution), Jason Falls (author, No Bullshit Social Media), Frank Eliason (author, @YourService), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Mark Schaefer (author, The Tao of Twitter), Dave Kerpen (author, Likeable Social Media), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), C.C. Chapman (co-author, Content Rules), Kipp Bodnar (co-author, The B2B Social Media Book), Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) and experts from LinkedIn, Dell, Ford, Citigroup and Citrix—just to mention a few.

Presentation topics include developing a social media strategy, finding and engaging your target audience, measuring success, converting activities to sales, and much more! Check out all the sessions.

At last summer’s summit, 98% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.

How can you win tickets?

social media success summitWe have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 140,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win:

There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

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#1: Twitter Entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

I want to win a ticket to Social Media Success Summit http://bit.ly/winSMSS12 via: @smexaminer #winSMSS12

You can tweet up to two times per dayEach tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winSMSS12 hashtag included.

#2: Written Entry

The winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (140,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write about your biggest social media marketing challenge in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges (Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and Jay Baer, founder of Convince and Convert) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

  • You can enter to win either or both prizes.
  • Tweets must contain #winSMSS12.
  • The deadline is Friday, April 20, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
  • If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
  • No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!