B2B – Check, B2C – Check, H2H – Check Plus!

Brands often try to categorize themselves into segments, either B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer). With the rise in social media however, a new segment has gained attention, H2H (human to human). This term was coined by Bryan Kramer, Social Media Strategist and CEO of PureMatter. According to Mr. Kramer, we live in a time when emotions are high because they’re publicly shared and displayed in social media.  Whether positive or negative these emotions are out there for the world to see, and this sharing our feelings with each other builds connections, which equates to relationships.

At the core of all social media is people talking to people, and talking to them in a way they expect and understand. More and more, brands are trying to behave like people, trying to distance themselves from being seen as institutions and more like companies that value their customers as individuals. While this may seem like common sense, many businesses don’t do it. They segment themselves and try to use big words and ideas to make them sound smarter, when really all people need and want is to feel connected.

In 2014, 80% of B2B marketers plan to increase their digital spending, up from 67% in 2013, according to Advertising Age’s 2014 B2B Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans survey. A significant percentage of this spending will go to social in an effort to build brand awareness, generate leads, and recruit employees.  The social media ground rules for B2B are pretty much the same as for B2C. Have a plan, know which platforms make sense for your company, put the right person in charge of your social media and generate great content. Additionally, we are learning that search engines dominate the first phase of research with 72% of product research for a future business purchase beginning on Google. Participating on Google+ can greatly affect your search rankings so it is a platform to be strongly considered.

B2B and B2C segments give you guidelines for how to talk to customers, but these two audiences are blending into one. If businesses want to continue to grow they need to change their approach and understand they are talking to humans with emotions and feelings. Humans pretty much all want to be treated a certain way, whether they consider themselves a B2B or a B2C.

Bullets

• Of the 2.4 million new jobs added to U.S. payrolls between May 2013 and May 2014, 53% were filled by men and 47% by women. During this time, women were most likely to be hired for positions in Professional and Business Services (324,000 new hires), Education and Health Services (267,000), Leisure and Hospitality (204,000), and Retail Trade (184,500). Industries hiring the most men for new jobs during this time included Professional and Business Services (311,000), Leisure and Hospitality (187,000), Construction (172,000), and Retail Trade (132,900). (iwpr.org)

• Search-based advertising continues to drive online ad sales, accounting for 43% of all online sales in 2013. down just slightly from 46% in 2012. (iab.net)

• 51% of millennials have an Instagram account and 42% use Snapchat, according to a March 2014 survey by Ypulse. When it comes to daily use, photo-focused social applications are more popular than their word-focused competitors. 31% of millennials post on Instagram on a daily basis, while 29% tweet every day. (Marketing News)

• Most owners of tablets (81%) and smartphones (79%) use their devices to search for information on local businesses, according to Neustar. Nearly all computer users (96%) do local searches on their laptops/desktop PCs. More than three-quarters of local searches made on mobile phones/smartphones result in purchases, the majority within a few hours of searching. More than six in 10 local searches made on tablets and computers result in purchases. (Nuestar)

• The majority of U.S. consumers-both with and without multichannel TV service-watch TV series online via streaming, according to Centris Marketing Science. Three-quarters (75%) of those who don’t subscribe to multichannel services stream TV series at least once a month, as do 56% of those who do subscribe to multichannel services. (Centris Marketing Science; 610-994-8310)