As a communications tool, social media is not necessarily the most effective for generating sales and instant profit, but it is useful for building brand loyalty and long term engagement.

Real Business Rescue has created an infographic that shows how social media can benefit B2B businesses in 2015. Obstacles that stand in the way of social media communications development include difficulty proving ROI, lack of time and no strategic planning. While budget is a general concern for marketers, it does not rate highly when it comes to social media.

The content that is being posted across social sites is largely original, written content, though it transpires that B2B communicators, despite valuing original written content most highly, are more likely to use curated content than B2C marketers. Content should be customised according to the social platform it appears on.

In terms of which platforms to target, Facebook and YouTube remain the social media sites with the most monthly active users. In light of this it’s not surprising to note that Facebook is one of B2B marketers most widely used social media sites. Twitter and Linkedin are also popular in the B2B space.

B2B communicators looking to grow their social influence should be sure to measure and quantify all social media activities and ditch social networks that aren’t performing well. Consistently educating your social media team should also be a priority. 

View the full infographic here.