B2B Social Media Marketing Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales

                                           ....you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

Some people just can't bear to hear the truth. The truth is that Twitter has never been an effective tool for B2B lead generation or business development.

For a long time, Twitter was useful for chats, peer-to-peer discussions, and content sharing. It was a lot of fun. I can attest to the fact that Twitter used to drive a lot of traffic to websites and blogs. That has changed.

Over time, I have been noticing that:

• the number of re-tweets is WAY down
• people are much more likely to "like" than to re-tweet - this does nothing to help more people see content
• tweeps just aren't clicking on links as often as they used to
• the organic reach of tweets to followers has declined significantly

Yesterday, I started a discussion in a Facebook group. I stated that I was not seeing much engagement on Twitter and asked group members if they were still active on Twitter. 

There has never been a lot of discussion in the group. Suddenly, people came out of nowhere. I couldn't believe how much engagement there was around this topic. People had very strong views on the subject and they discussed them. Sadly, the majority of participants in the discussion were having the same experience that I was. There were no arguments, no fights, it was just a very real, open, and candid discussion. Someone asked me a direct question about LinkedIn and I started a new discussion about LinkedIn. Again, there was immediate and active engagement.

One would think that the admin, Lara McCulloch, would have been thrilled that there was finally some engagement. That was not the case. Last night, I noticed that I could no longer access the group. Clearly, I stepped on somebody's toes. That was not my intention. This isn't personal. I like Lara. She is well respected in the #eventprofs community. I feel she did a wonderful job launching the hashtag #eventprofs on Twitter. In fact, I praised her to the skies in:

• #eventprofs The story Behind the Hashtag
   

Kudos to her!! She is to be commended. But. there are no sacred cows and I believe in keeping things real.

Fairy tales are sweet, fun, and entertaining. They bear little relationship to real life but they do expose and reveal truths. For example, few people appreciate someone who has the guts to tell the emperor that he has no clothes.

Rather than identifying an issue and generating strategies to resolve them, some would prefer to believe myths and fairy tales. 

Social media can be like that. Many prefer to buy into the hype rather than face the reality about what is going on with various platforms.

What do the facts tell us about Twitter?

As the result of a discussion about Twitter (that someone else started) in a LinkedIn Group,  Peter Altschuler shared the following report by MarketingProfs:

• 2017 Social Media Marketing Trends: Top B2B and B2C Networks and Paid Channels

• 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report
  

The study, in which 5700 marketers participated, highlighted the fact that:

• only 12% of B2B marketers use Twitter
• for the first time, Facebook surpassed LinkedIn in importance for B2B marketers (43% vs 37%)

Jeremy Smith is my kind of blogger. No myths or fairy tales here.

• The Truth About B2B Lead Gen: What Really Works

Also, check out this Infographic by Placester. Twitter was at the bottom of the list of social media platforms ranking in terms of their value for B2B lead generation:

• Hot or Not: The Best Methods for Finding New B2B Customers in 2014

Refusing to face reality doesn't serve anyone. The term for those who can't face reality is "delusional" and we know where people who are truly delusional end up.

Those who are able to be real and admit that there is a problem can generate solutions. For example:

• Javier 🐝 beBee and Juan Imaz designed beBee to address the challenges of  engagement and organic reach of content on many social media platforms
• Juan Imaz created my TweetPack.com to significantly "turn up the volume" on Twitter content and improve the reach of tweets
• Bloggers have formed communities on Facebook to share content across all social media platforms. It's an effective strategy.
• Based on the success of fashion, beauty, travel, and parenting blogging groups, I created the B2B Bloggers Network on 3 platforms including beBee.