For many B2B companies, social media has become an essential comms tool. In the B2B world, brand awareness is the most important aspect of communications. Social media shows a marked contribution to brand development and reputation building.

A new infograph published by Real Business Rescue predicts the increased potential for the use of social media in B2B communications.

In 2013, spending on native social media rose by over 70% in the US compared to 2012. It increased by $2.4 billion and by almost 40% worldwide in comparison to the previous year.

LinkedIn also gained popularity among B2B communicators. Around 90% say that it is their preferred social media network, followed by Twitter at over 80%. Blogs bring up the rear at just over 60%.

The growing popularity of LinkedIn is set to continue as figures show over 80% of B2B communicators prefer the social media platform for content distribution. Almost 60% believe the use of LinkedIn generated more sales and 45% attribute direct customer gain to the medium.

Spending on social media is set to increase in 2014 along with email marketing, online video, search and mobile. However a 4% decrease is predicted for spending on web development.