Why Do B-to-B Companies Ignore Social Media Feedback?

It still boggles my mind that companies who rush into social media ignore feedback once they do get it. I wonder if they do that with traditional feedback? Why get into it if you aren’t going to participate? What I don’t get is why many companies are ignoring social media on a day-to-day basis. The object of the medium is to engage with like-minded people who are looking for information or products.

I recently read a post by Jeffrey Cohen from socialmediaB2, 69% of B2B Companies Ignore Social Media Feedback. He cites a recent study by Satmetrix that shines some light on worldwide social media practices. They interviewed almost 1200 companies from around the world.

“Businesses recognize the need for a social media strategy, however many are challenged in putting an effective strategy in place,” said Richard Owen, chief executive officer, Satmetrix. “While 77 percent of consumers post about products, 67 percent of businesses have no means of measuring what is being said, and less than one in 20 have any insight into the sentiment of what is being said. This is both a huge threat and a massive lost opportunity. Not only are companies running the risk of losing customers by not addressing their issues shared online, but they are also walking past the opportunity to capitalize on positive comments made on the social web.”

Highlights of the study include:

  • Businesses are blind to the threats and opportunities of social media:
    • Thirty nine percent have no social media tracking in place at all.
    • Fifty one percent of B2B have no tracking compared to 22 percent of B2C companies surveyed.
  • Fifty five percent of companies ignore customers who provide feedback via social media – by having no process in place to respond:
    • This increases to 69 percent for B2B companies compared to 42 percent for B2C.
  • Sixty seven percent of companies do not measure or quantify social media – increasing to 75 percent for B2B companies:
    • For those that do have some form of quantification, 56 percent just count the comments and followers.
    • Only 4 percent have any form of sentiment analysis.
  • Sixty percent of businesses do not have an integrated social media strategy (either do nothing, track or follow-up only).
  • North America leads the way with 43 percent of North American companies having a follow-up process compared to about 25 percent in other regions.

So where does your company’s social media program stack up? Do you have a strategy in place?

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