Since early October my colleague Laura Ramos and I have been publishing a series of reports examining the role of digital media in the business technology buying process. The data we have been drawing upon comes from Forrester’s Business Data Services offering and consists mainly of just one question: “When researching and comparing products, how important is each of the following media as a source of information for informing your purchase decision?”

Its a pretty simple question, but has been powerful in helping us to understand the importance of traditional and social media, online and offline interactions, the role of a sales rep, and many others. The results from this one question have been so encouraging we have invested the time and money in running an entire survey on the subject (some of the early results are here, and I will be sharing more on this blog over time).

The series of reports we have been publishing have been organized by technology category (networking and telecommunications, IT services, hardware, security, etc.) but some common themes are emerging. Here are three:

1. Social media is important to technology buyers. When compared to traditional information sources like peers and colleagues, sales reps, and trade shows, social media is not the be-all, end-all information source — the vast majority of buyers will still rely most heavily on the people and channels they know when making a technology purchase decision. However social media is starting to have an impact: among telecom and network buyers, for example, nearly two-thirds find discussion forums and social networks important. For hardware buyers the number is 64%; for security buyers it is 59%. I’ll even save you the suspense: Software will be a big number too. Its clear that social media is having an impact, and its one that we expect to only grow over time.
2. Buyers in more technical disciplines rely on social media more than the average. We can probably call this the discussion forums effect, but within technology categories it is the most technical disciplines that rely on social media the most. Among hardware buyers for example, discussion forums, blogs, and rich media all have the greatest impact on server and PC virtualization, data center, and storage decision-makers. Their peers focused on desktops, laptops, and hardware services, by contrast, rely more on traditional information sources.
3. Smaller firms place value on fewer information sources. Buyers at the largest companies have developed an omnivore attitude towards information sources; they consume nearly all of them voraciously. At smaller firms buyers are far more likely to rely on just one or two information sources. This sets up an odd dichotomy: At larger firms more buyers are likely to engage social media; at smaller firms those who do engage are more likely to be influenced.

I am very excited to dig into the results from our recent survey and will be writing up more insights — as well as the heavy-weight segmentation and approach research — over the coming year.

If you are interested in digging into the results along with us shoot me an email.

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