The 5 most important social networks for business decision makers

There are quite some studies on social media usage in companies. Most of them are based on surveys of decision-makers or qualitative analyses of individual networks. Together with the B2B trade portal selfcampaign, CMOatWork dares a new approach: In an exclusive reception study we looked at which social networks are written about – and which networks business decision makers use to gather information. The basis of our data is the evaluation of the use of connected specialist websites, which provide information on the keywords for which articles are consumed on the Internet. On this basis, we can draw revealing conclusions about which social networks were relevant in the business sector in 2018 – and which will be in 2019! So let the figures speak for themselves...

5. LinkedIn

15.66% of all relevant articles were related to LinkedIn. It's amazing that there weren't any more, since LinkedIn is the only "real" business network on our list. Nevertheless, the figures speak for themselves: whether it's a matter of technical discussions or vacancies: Nowadays, no company can avoid LinkedIn. Internationally, the trend goes clearly upward. Only – where is Xing? At least not in the top 5 of our study...

4. Pinterest

But fourth place is already followed by another surprise: Pinterest is not yet on the screen of many companies. Nevertheless, no less than 15.69% of all articles received were adjourned with the catchword Pinterest. And indeed: Recent studies confirm Pinterest's credibility and the IPO has been foreseeable since 2018. In online marketing, too, the network with more than 250 million users worldwide is naturally becoming more and more important.

3. Twitter

Good news also from Twitter: After the hanging game of recent years, the short news service is finally in the black. Also pleasing: despite a limited number of characters, the network is still associated with the image of a serious discussion platform, where information is concisely brought to the point. Visitors to our partner sites obviously see things in a similar light: they reward Twitter with 15.84% and a strong third place.

2. Facebook

In 2018, the world's best-known social network was the subject to a lot of criticism. It were fallen out of time, trumped by its successors and questionably involved in political and economic scandals. Anyway: 53.37% of all investigated pages were tagged "Facebook". A glance at the number of users shows, however, that not every press is the same as "good press": They are continuously declining. Interest among young people even halved in 2018. It remains to be seen whether Facebook can at least maintain its business relevance in the coming years...

1. Instagram

Many companies are still critical of Instagram from a distance. And indeed, a social network, half of which seems to consist of photo models, bodybuilders and cooks, is not exactly for business communication. The interest is there in any case: At 55.87%, even more received articles were marked with the keyword Instagram than Facebook. An increasing B2B relevance in the next year can therefore be regarded as set.

Conclusion

Our reception study comes up with some real surprises: With Pinterest, a network appears in the top 5 of the most read articles, which many probably didn't have on their screens. There may be more being read than written about Facebook. And Instagram impressively proves its B2B relevance with a first place. With this information in mind, 2019 may come!