Written on 2 June 2009 at 08:49 by Arikhanson

Do we really have a generational gap?

Filed under Uncategorized {3 comments}

Arik Hanson here. I’ve spent a decent portion of my career working in the B2B sector—more specifically professional services. One concern I continue to hear from my former colleagues and others I work with in the accounting, consulting and legal professions: Are social networks really the best way to reach CEOs, CFO and controllers? Aren’t they too old for this stuff?

Let’s look at the numbersGeneration Gap

According to eMarketer, B2B organizations spent $480 million in advertising on social networks in 2008. That number will skyrocket to $4 billion by 2012.

According to Nielsen, Facebook added twice as many 50-64 year olds visitors (13.6 million) than under 18s (7.3 million) between Dec. 2007 and Dec. 2008 (what do you think the number looks like now?)

And, according to a recent study by Accenture (hat tip to Steve Rubel), baby boomers:

· Increased reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67 percent year over year; nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1 percent)

· Posted a 59 percent increase in using social networking sites—more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent)

· Increased watching/posting videos on the Internet by 35 percent—while Gen Y usage decreased slightly (-2 percent)

Clearly boomers are moving online, but really, the numbers are just one piece of the equation.

Wait, is it really all about the numbers?

Like so many other things in this space, it’s not all about the numbers. Clearly, numbers matter. Especially to bean-counting CPAs and those accountable for the financial performance of our organizations. But, there’s a softer, more relationship-based side to social networks that makes them invaluable to B2B organizations that make their living on longer sales cylces.

For example, what kind of dollar figure would you put on picking your customer’s brains around new products or ways to improve your existing ones? Don’t B2B companies invest millions in focus group research each year? Social networks give you the opportunity to tap into your customer’s minds—in many cases for very little money.

How much value does a new account have for your firm? By arming employees with the resources they need to tell your story to friends, family and business associates through social networks you can turn LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter into powerful sales tools. And the best part: It’s free and relatively easy—chances are, many employees are already engaging in social networks in their free time and talking about your business. Why not give them the tools they need to tell your story, further your brand and possibly convince a friend of colleague to give your product or service a try?

Is ROI really the roadblock?

There’s no doubt it’s tougher to connect social media strategy to your bottom line. But, don’t we have similar challenges with advertising and earned media? Can we really point to an article in the New York Times and say it translated directly into a $10 million account? I’m not so sure.

So, if you’re looking at participating in social networks from an ROI standpoint, it’s not all that different from the existing strategies in your marketing and communications plan.

Given the numbers mentioned above, the relationship value and the ROI discussion, does the perceived generational gap even matter for B2B companies? Or, does it make too much sense not to give these tools a try? You tell me.

  • http://twitter.com/apearson Aaron Pearson

    Arik, I agree that the ROI issue isn’t necessarily harder for social media than for traditional paid or unpaid media. (it might be easier) But I think the issue is that because they have been around for a while, the role that those traditional forms of marketing communications play for a given B2B company targeting a given audience have become better understood, whether by research or anecdotal experience. As I see it, the path the target audience takes from complete unawareness to ultimately become a happy customer is undoubtedly being changed by social and digital media. Those who subscribe to a “This is the approach that’s always worked for us,” mentality to marketing promotions are probably underoptimizing their investments by following an old formula (and old might only be 3 years old). On the other hand, throwing a lot of money at social media to see what sticks is hardly a strategic approach. Ideally, I’d suggest combining a certain amount of low-cost experimentation with research into the target audience that reassesses the role that different forms of promotions and communications are playing in this new world, including traditional tactics like advertising, trade shows, and business or trade editorial, alongside blogs, LinkedIn networking, online video and all the other emerging channels. We can reduce risk and guesswork without too much time and expense.

  • http://annabarcelos.com Anna Barcelos

    Aaron hits it with adding/experimenting some of the social media tools in with some traditional marketing. It’s very low cost to tack on social media initiatives, and for those more conservative folks, trial and error can be conducted without much financial risk. What you don’t want to do is ignore social media altogether. Your numbers clearly indicate the high engagement rates. To not be a part of that somehow is just plain crazy.

  • http://totallyincorrect.com David Holliday

    Hi Arik,

    I was happy to find your post on this subject, I’ve been meaning to do one myself and you’ve saved me the trouble :-)

    I find it really interesting that social media demographics seem to have changed over the last few years, from it being a kids thing to a boomer thing. I’m in my 50′s by the way, so I guess I’m a good example!

    One thing that I wonder is whether this is going to turn into an advertising bonanza as predicted. Personally, I find that people I talk to of my age hate advertising and many – me especially – will go to some length to avoid it. In my home office I use exclusively Firefox with Adblock and I was appalled when I recently used Google Reader at work and saw all those ads which are usually wasted on me – hideous!!

    So I agree with you that numbers are just one part. If there are a lot of David Hollidays messing around in social media, marketers have got to work much harder and be much more creative to get their attention.

    Oh, I’m a B2B (hate that expression) marketing dude myself, so I’m glad I found this blog.

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