Forbes Enters The B2B Social Media Arena

The use of social media in B2B sales in questionably impactful, but digital media conglomerate Forbes seems to envision a bright future for the space. The company announced last week that it has licensed its brand to, and acquired a stake in, B2B marketing social media platform SocialPort.

Reports said that the new Forbes SocialPort name will be promoted by both SocialPort and Forbes. The service provides a mechanism for B2B suppliers to generate sales content and distribute that content through an array of social media sites, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The dashboard offers businesses a way to schedule that distribution – for example, schedule a tweet – and includes a data analytics service for sellers to gain insight into the effectiveness of these campaigns.

“Forbes SocialPort reinforces our strategy to transform Forbes into more of a global product and tech-driven media company,” said Forbes Media president and CEO Mike Perlis.

This isn’t the first time Forbes has lent its name to B2B services. Reports note that the company partnered for B2B and B2C mobile payments service Forbes Digital Commerce. But the SocialPort pairing does reportedly mark Forbes’ entrance into the enterprise social media industry.

But industry experts seem torn as to whether social media marketing efforts is worth the resources of B2B sellers and suppliers. Research firm CEB had recently declared social media as “an untapped gold mine” for the B2B space. Separate research released earlier this month, however, revealed that social media platforms and supplier blogs are rarely, if ever, the first resource for procurement officials’ vendor research. Instead, as buyers are concerned about being bombarded by advertisements on social media sites, procurement officials instead reported a supplier’s website to be their first point of contact.