IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MARKETING MEDIA TECHNOLOGY LinkedIn is the principal social platform for both buyers and sellers— 98% of technology providers use it for industry research ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’, and 88% of buyers. After that, YouTube is the most popular social platform among buyers, with 72% using it ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’. In general, we think YouTube is an underused resource by many marketing teams. Bite-size videos are an e昀昀ective way to communicate product capabilities, customer case studies and industry know-how. Yet very few industry suppliers have an actively-updated YouTube channel, and almost none have equipped their spokespeople with even the most basic video and audio kit for recording and streaming. Focusing on those platforms that are used “often”, Twitter and Facebook are in the top four along with LinkedIn and YouTube. TikTok is the surprise entry, with just under a quarter of buyers saying they use it often. When more occasional use is taken into account, buyers say they use an even wider range of social platforms at least sometimes—including Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest and Weibo. There is little evidence that these longer-tail social platforms have much traction for professional use though, with fewer than one in five turning to them often. That said, technology suppliers are under-estimating the importance of TikTok compared with buyers and rather over-estimating the role of Instagram. Social media platforms used "often" for researching media technology industry and products Which of the social media platforms (if any) do you like to use to keep on top of broadcast and media technology industry trends and learn about suppliers and products? Which of the social media platforms (if any) do you like to use for marketing communica- tions? Source: Caretta online broadcast and media technology marketing survey, Sep-Oct 2021