Why Social Media is The Least Trusted Source of Information For B2B Buyers

Earlier this year Edelman released their annual Edelman Barometer 2010. The Edelman Trust research has been most interesting in the last few years due to the global economic climate, and the lost of trust in institutions from governments, to financial institutions and Businesses.

This years trust report showed some interesting changes, namely in the loss of trust one finds from peers. This is important in B2B Marketing as most research indicates that potential prospects in a buying cycle trust peers the most when making decisions. This fact, and the rise of social media as a channel for peers to access each other has placed social media, and B2B marketing strategy in very close company.

In looking at the Edelman report this year we see that Peers are the only group to have fallen in the context of groups or roles that are most likely to be trusted when hearing information about a company.

If you look at the Edelman Trust Barometer over the last two years you will see a large decline in trust from peer groups, from 58% in 2008 to 44% in 2010. While this blog post is related to B2B marketing the Edelman Trust Barometer Survey was one of the early resources to clue marketers into the fact that traditional mass media channels were becoming less and less effective, as they were increasingly seen as being less trusted.

So how does this relate to B2B and the loss of trust in Social Media? In a recent Sirius Decisions’ Conference the latest research on he B2B buying process was presented, and in it “Peers” remained the most trusted source of information within a B2B buying process. This trust factor actually increased some 7% from 2006. What would be interesting is to look the data from 2008 to 2010, to see if Peers have fallen, as the Edelman data would suggest.

The other really interesting part of this research is the rise in the influence of Vendors and Partners as trusted sources of information within a B2B buying process, and the associated decline of search as a medium of trusted information. Now the same research also identified the least trusted sources of information.

 

Surprising here is that Vendors have significantly improved in the context of a being a trusted source since 2006, and that social media is far and away the least trusted source of information for B2B buyers. Especially shocking as the current mantra in B2B marketing follows the logic that your prospects’ peers are the most trusted, they use social media to communicate, therefore you must use social media if you are to influence or be seen as a trusted source. Not an unreasonable assumption or logic; however what has really happened?

I have long held that social media is a conversational medium and if corrupted for the purpose of lead generation it would not be effective. That being said if you read 99% of the jargon related to B2B marketing and social media it is in the context of generating sales or leads, quickly followed by how hard it is to show the ROI of social media, which is usually followed by “insight” that says measuring social media is not that hard. Of course what is actually being measured is the “media” and not the “social”.

I don’t know of any easy way to truly relate social media into cost reduction or revenue generation to prove ROI as I have always defined it. Since social media is conversational should you even try to prove ROI? You have to converse in order to even have a chance of conducting business, so from the perspective social media is just good for business.

This brings us to the next reason why we see a lack of trust in social media, and that is the lack of thought leadership or relevant content from the vendor community to their audience through social media channels. I stress social media channels because you will note that vendors are seen as more trusted than in past years. What could be causing this?

The focus on content marketing could be one reason. Any B2B marketer worth his or her salt knows that they need to have an understanding of the audience, the buying process and what the relevant content needs to be along each stage of the buying process. This content then must be used in online marketing efforts, like search and SEO, to generate inbound inquires, and poor content means poor inquiry generation in most cases.

If the content quality has improved then I could see how vendors could be viewed as a more trusted source of information; however if we as a B2B marketing community, are simply using social media today as a way to “sell more” then we are missing an opportunity to position our point of view on leading issues and engage with our community, regardless if we sell something or not.

 

There is also a larger trend afoot where any mention of a vendor or product in social media circles is becoming increasingly suspect. Just look at the paid mommy bloggers, paid celebrity endorsements for mentions on twitter, and product placement in every mainstream channel from talk shows to movies. It is hard for anyone to really discern today what is real or paid for. As social media is becoming a larger communication medium and peer groups are viewed as significant influencers, then means to reach both these audiences will naturally become commercialized and, in doing so, will also become less trusted. You can’t even trust a doctor anymore to prescribe what’s right.

In closing, I’ll leave you with these thoughts:

• 1. B2B Markets must establish strong thought leaders and associated content if they want their company to be viewed as an industry leader within their extended ecosystem.
• 2. B2B Marketers should refrain from viewing social media channels as simply new communication mediums to use in generating leads and that can be used to influence, discuss, and debate points of view that are relevant to the extended community.
• 3. B2B Marketers must utilize social media to amplify their voice, listen, engage and innovate.
• 4. B2B Marketers must have something relevant to say; no matter which medium they communicate in.
• 5. Do not undervalue the power of your internal thought leaders, content, or company web site and partner channels as ways to establish yourself as a trusted thought leader.
• 6. You must influence the influencers with relevant thought leadership, insight and tools.
• 7. Don’t assume your personas consume information via social media. Know what channels they prefer to receive information through.

 

One thing about old school marketing that hasn’t changed is that people still buy from people, and not from companies. If you’re like me, you prefer to buy from people that you find highly knowledgeable on their topic, whether it’s your mechanic or your software vendor. With increased knowledge comes an excellent opportunity to establish dialogue, and dialogue leads to an opportunity to establish a trusted relationship. After all in business it’s the long-term relationships that generate the greatest value to the business. Nuff said.

Comments

[braden - the social media guy]

I would like to disagree, I feel that social media is one of the most trusted sources of information because you will be able to gather information from different sources and verify its validity.