That was the headline on the first page article when BtoB Magazine landed in my inbox last week. According to new research from IDC, only 18.6% of B2B technology buyers say social media has influenced their purchase decisions or interactions with vendors. So should B2B organizations shutter their social media efforts or reduce their investments? Stepping back from the details, the research from IDC reaffirms two key guidelines for B2B social media. Social Is Not About Selling If you are using social media to sell, you are not connecting with your audience. Don’t be that guy. MORE >>

Selling content marketing to B2B executives is hard. At least harder than it should be. But what strikes me as odd is their willingness to requestion their decision after they've finally been convinced. I'm getting more and more requiests from B2B marketers about how to present reasons why content marketing should stay a line item on the budget. The number one reason I believe this to be happening is due to the continuum nature of content marketing. Content marketing is not a campaign. " At least not quickly. This year, you only generated 147 leads in April. WTF happened?" MORE >>

I’m pleased to be a collaborator with Edison Research on the new Social Habit Project. Because I’m a numbers geek so I’m overjoyed to finally get some social media data we can trust! Here are eight fantastic facts from the Social Habit’s latest study. 1) 7 percent of Americans have never heard of Facebook. So on this one, can I hear a big ol’ what the HELL? How can seven out of 100 people you see each day have no clue about Facebook? The social network has dominated ALL media, not just social media, for a couple of years now. Magazines. The news. Even a movie. MORE >>

Guest Post by Alicia Ranch-Traille. For a small business, the successful use of social media involves a bit more than simply “liking” a few things on Facebook. If you want to make an impact on the social media scene, you'll need to run your presence like an election campaign. You'll want to appeal to multiple networks, track what people are saying about you and prompt those people to leave a positive review every time they check out of your site. If that sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is a lot of work. 1) Monitter. This is where Monitter comes in handy. 5) Disqus. MORE >>

Photo credit: edrabbit. really believe it’s bad advice to recommend that companies fire their social media consultants, experts and agencies only to bring everything internal. While “everyone” is on Facebook , social media is no longer a land of tinkerers, it’s a land of consumers. If you fill a room of potential brand ambassadors you harvest from your own ranks, I guarantee that only 1% to 10% of those people are active participants and the rest are passive, sometimes participants, most of whom are lurkers. And Kudos, but seriously a truly exceptional example. MORE >>