Maxus launches Maxus For Business with business to business social media survey
WPP media agency Maxus – basking in the glory of landing L’Oreal’s £135m UK media account from ZenithOptimedia – is launching a new B2B division, Maxus For Business, under James Bailey (left) who will report to Maxus UK MD Nick Baughan.
Maxus For Business’s foundation accounts include UPS, Barclaycard GBS, Barclays Corporate and Investment Banking, Ricoh, Osram, The Financial Times and BT Business.
To kick things off the new outfit has surveyed business people with purchasing decisions, 500 culled from LinkedIn, on their use of and attitudes to social media.
Most trusted (73 per cent) and preferred social medium for B2B communications is LinkedIn (hardly a surprise) with nine per cent rating Facebook and 17 per cent Twitter. 70 per cent of respondents don’t think business use social media well when talking to each other although a quarter of respondents have little or no access to social media at work.
44 per cent of respondents said that they were looking for news (when they were looking), 20 per cent wanted ‘how to’ guides. Only eight per cent were interested in videos.
Which, maybe, indicates that business people represent an intractable challenge for social media. Facebook and Twitter seem to work on a total immersion basis for their respective fans but this is hardly an option for people trying to make sales and win contracts. LinkedIn is at least useful for checking the whereabouts of people who’ve just lost their jobs.
