B2B Marketers To Increase Their Social Media Budgets This Year

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Soon, information technology (or, IT) buyers say social media will be the most important source of content to inform their buying decisions, according to a study conducted by IDG Connect. White papers and vendor-created materials are currently given more weight over social media during the buying process, but that is expected to flip in two years.

We believe this trend applies more broadly to many other business-to-business (B2B) industries, and as a result, we expect social media to capture a greater portion of B2B marketing budgets going forward. According to an AdAge survey, one in two B2B marketers expect to increase their overall marketing budget this year, and 80% plan to increase their digital spending. A fair percentage of that increased spend will likely go to social.

All major social media channels stand to benefit from increased B2B spending. However, LinkedIn will likely be the greatest beneficiary as its network of professionals has made it a natural B2B sales driver. (AdAge)

FACEBOOK TESTING NEW USER ACTIONS: Facebook is reportedly testing a new feature that will let users add movie titles that are mentioned in article links to their "watched" or "want to watch" lists. Previously, Facebook users could only carry out such an action on News Feed stories that were deliberately about movies - such as when a friend added a film to the "favorite movies" section of their profile. However, it seems Facebook's machine learning systems are now sophisticated enough to accurately identify references to movies in articles. As such, the social network is allowing its users to interact more with entertainment-related News Feed content. (AllFacebook)

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MORE DATA SHOWS FACEBOOK IS LESS POPULAR AMONG TEENS: Facebook's U.S. audience consists of approximately 3 million fewer teens (aged 13-17) than it did in 2011 (a 25% decrease), according to iStrategyLabs, a digital media agency. The agency relied on data available in Facebook's advertising service, which reveals the potential reach among different audiences that use the social network. It's important to point out that some teens who used Facebook in 2011 are now counted in an older age bracket. So, these are not necessarily users who left the social network. However, it does indicate that Facebook is less popular among a newer generation of teenagers. (iStrategyLabs)

TWITTER STEPS UP SECURITY: From now on, apps can only access Twitter's API if they have SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption enabled. SSL connections are more secure than traditional HTTP plain text connections, so any user data that is exchanged via Twitter's API will be less susceptible to breaches. (Twitter)

ZUCKERBERG COMMENTS ON SNAPCHAT: During a talk he gave at Stanford University, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he thinks Snapchat has created a new kind of space to communicate, referring to its ephemeral content. "I think that's really important and that's a big kind of innovation we're going to keep pushing on and keep trying to do more on and I think a lot of other companies will too," he said. (TechCrunch)

LINKEDIN EXPANDS JOB DATABASE: LinkedIn has launched a "volunteer marketplace," where people can look for unpaid jobs. The marketplace will increase the size of LinkedIn's already extensive job database, and could bolster engagement among students who are looking for internship opportunities. (LinkedIn)

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