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Small businesses in the B2B sector are catching up with their B2C counterparts when it comes to social media engagement.

A new report by Webmarketing123 found 63 per cent of B2B marketers say they are moderately to highly engaged in social media, compared to 70 per cent of those in the B2C sector.

All sectors spend most of their resources on Facebook, but B2B marketers prefer LinkedIn as their secondary channel and those in B2C tend to go for Twitter.

When it comes to return on investment, LinkedIn performs best for B2B. The platform has increased leads for 44 per cent of marketers, while nearly a quarter attribute sales to it. On the B2C side, 67 per cent of marketers said Facebook has increased their leads and 39 per cent closed sales thanks to the channel.

Differences between B2B and B2C marketing objectives

It is natural for B2B and B2C marketers to take different approaches to social media as part of their content marketing strategies, as they have specific objectives they wish to achieve.

Econsultancy and Outbrain's recent Content Marketing Survey Report 2012 found the top content marketing objective for both B2B and B2C marketers is increased engagement.

However, secondary objectives differed in that B2C marketers are keen to drive traffic to their sites, while B2B marketers want to generate leads.

The researchers suggested different purchasing cycles and audience behaviours have a key role to play. They said: "B2C marketers typically target a larger number of consumers who complete their purchases online, compared with B2B marketers who typically need to lead smaller numbers of decision makers and stakeholders through a more prolonged buying process. Because of this difference, the nature of content and the purpose it serves are likely to differ significantly."