When it comes to social media, many B2B marketers can feel uncertain about choosing the best social media site to reach out to their target audience. However, B2B Marketing’s 2015 Social Media Benchmarking Report has revealed that LinkedIn is the most popular choice in the sector for effectiveness, largely thanks to its business-centred approach and reach.

A total of 58 per cent of the surveyed B2B professionals believed that LinkedIn was the best option, followed by Twitter, which was preferred by 28 per cent. Surprisingly, well-established networks like YouTube and Facebook (which were in third and fourth places respectively) were not considered majority options.

However, despite beliefs about its effectiveness, LinkedIn has been overtaken by Twitter in terms of the most-used platform, with 76 per cent of respondents updating their status on a regular basis. A further 18 per cent have a Twitter profile, showing that B2B use of the network is almost universal.

Compared to this, 71 per cent said they were active users of LinkedIn on their company’s profile, and 18 per cent used their own personal page for marketing purposes.

While this is the current situation, many B2B marketers are planning to expand their use of other social media sites over the coming year in a bid to extend their reach and effectiveness.

Overall, 90 per cent of marketers say they hope to increase their use of LinkedIn, followed by Twitter and YouTube, where 77 per cent plan to become more active. YouTube in particular already has a number of B2B users, as 47 per cent reported being active users of the site for professional purposes, along with a further 36 per cent who had a profile on the site.

Social media is an increasingly diverse aspect of B2B marketing, and the move towards YouTube suggests that video content is likely to become a key tool of marketers in the near future, while LinkedIn and other sites maintain a substantial share of the action..