B2B Social Media: The Silent Majority Opportunity

This has been an issue with social media in B2B that I keep coming back to. There are those of us that produce content, those that comment, those that share, and those that just are there on the fringe – the silent majority. As marketers, free press (engagement) is typically measured more in actions and thus the measure of social media success. But, what has me thinking is, are those that are most vocal and interactive really representative of my market or who I want to convert? I know that they have influence by their ability to advocate the brand and spread my message. Though, it makes me wonder if my message is really being shared in the manner that I would intend. Ah, the loss of control.

But, I digress…

There is a part of me that thinks social media and how we measure effectiveness may be a bit flawed. Taking a step back and looking at the B2B decision process, social media is not proving to be a big conversion component at the bottom of the funnel. It is really a thought leadership component. As such, while I certainly want to engage those visiting say in a blog or community, I think that the silent majority may actually be my real customer. I’m not even determining how I’m influencing them or who they are in how social media effectiveness is measured today.

Here’s why I care about the silent majority. They are the ones that are probably in a serious research phase as they assess their business and ways to improve it. They are the ones that don’t have other motives outside of becoming more knowledgeable. It may not be in their best interest to publicly communicate their opinions or questions as it could expose their strategy to competitors, thus they are closer to considering next steps. They share content rarely, but when they do it is highly relevant to their purpose. I think the silent majority is actually the closest to being converted, and we don’t even track them well.

Initial thoughts are that we should look at members/subscribers and content sharers that are active in visitation but less so in direct engagement – taking a bottom up analysis rather than top down. This may point towards more qualified leads to engage in direct marketing activities and other traditional conversion tactics. We might want to look overall at our social media and begin to track metrics that point towards research behavior that resembles behavior of those ready to engage in the sales process in order to determine potential effect on marketing conversion. Thus, giving a window on our social media’s effect on conversion.

What do you think? What is your strategy for the silent majority?