There was a time, not so long ago, when the phrase "B2B social media strategy" would have drawn polite but skeptical looks in most conference rooms — the kind reserved for colleagues who suggest team-building retreats involving trust falls. That time, it appears, has passed.

Social media has become the leading channel for brand building among business-to-business marketers, according to a survey of 300 marketers by Marketing Week. Some 80.8 percent of respondents said they were investing in social platforms for brand purposes, well ahead of events (63.8 percent) and public relations (62.7 percent). The findings suggest that an industry long associated with white papers and trade show booths has discovered the virtues of the feed.

(Whether the feed has discovered the virtues of B2B marketing remains, perhaps, an open question.)

Among the brands embracing the shift is Allica Bank, a British business lender that has built a following of nearly 300,000 on LinkedIn through what Georgie Burks, the interim head of marketing, described as "community building and networking." Ms. Burks cited an exchange in which a social media manager responded to a prospective customer's query with a case study and contact information — a reply that generated 15,000 impressions and, eventually, a customer who moved £250,000 to the bank. "HSBC doesn't even know my name," the customer reportedly explained.

Ms. Burks acknowledged the particular challenges of Instagram for a business bank. "There's always a risk it'll be lame from a B2B brand," she said, "so you've just got to be really careful about that."

At Pearson, the education company, Rachel Exton, the vice president of global brand, described LinkedIn as a "platinum" platform and, somewhat unexpectedly, "better than any employee newsletter." The company consolidated 171 social handles into a single brand voice 15 months ago and has since grown its LinkedIn following from 800,000 to 1.3 million.

Still, Ms. Exton offered a cautionary note about the durability of social's dominance. "They've been the top dog for quite some time," she said of the platforms. "But their top spot might be a bit wobbly now."

The machines, it seems, are coming for the feed too.

Original story published in Marketing Week: "B2B brands on making social a 'priority'"