Social Media Is Now B2B's No.1 Brand-Building Channel, Study Finds
Marketing Week's 2026 State of Brand in B2B survey finds that 80.8% of B2B firms now invest in social media for brand building, the top channel, ahead of events (63.8%) and PR and thought leadership (62.7%).
What the Data Says
The survey of 300 B2B marketers puts social media firmly at the top of the brand-building toolkit, used by 80.8% of firms. Events and experiential (63.8%) and PR, editorial and thought leadership (62.7%) follow.
Traditional broadcast is an afterthought: fewer than one in ten B2B firms invest in linear TV or radio (each 7.4%), streaming (8.5%) or cinema (1.1%). Among SMEs, social usage climbs to 83.7%, while zero allocate budget to cinema.
There is a revealing gap between spend and belief. While 62.4% think social effectively builds brands, 74.9% rate PR, editorial and thought leadership as most effective, despite investing less in it.
Our Read: Reach Is Easy, Distinctiveness Is Hard
Social's dominance is unsurprising: it is measurable, flexible and cheap to start. But 'everyone is doing it' is precisely the problem. When four in five competitors build brand on the same platforms, feeds converge and differentiation gets harder, not easier.
The more interesting signal is the belief gap. Marketers rate thought leadership as their most effective brand builder yet under-fund it relative to social. That points to a category over-indexed on always-on presence and under-invested in the credibility-building content that actually moves B2B buyers.
Why the Credibility Channels Still Win
B2B purchases are high-consideration, committee-driven and slow. Trust, expertise and reputation, the currency of PR and thought leadership, do the heavy lifting closer to the decision, even if they are harder to measure than a social impression.
The lesson is not to abandon social; it is to stop treating reach as the goal. The brands that win pair a broad social presence with a smaller number of genuinely authoritative, evidence-led pieces that a buying committee will actually cite internally.
What B2B Marketers Should Do
Audit your split. If your brand budget is 80% social and a rounding error on thought leadership, you are probably mirroring the market rather than beating it. Rebalance toward the credibility channels your own peers rate most effective.
Then make social work harder as distribution, not just presence: use it to amplify original research, expert points of view and customer proof, so every post ladders back to a distinctive position. Reach without a reason to believe is just noise in a crowded feed.
Quick FAQ
What share of B2B firms use social media for brand building?
80.8%, according to Marketing Week's 2026 State of Brand in B2B survey of 300 marketers, making it the single most-used brand-building channel.
Which brand-building channels do B2B marketers rate most effective?
PR, editorial and thought leadership, rated most effective by 74.9%, even though firms invest more heavily in social media (62.4% see social as effective).
Is traditional media dead in B2B?
Nearly. Fewer than one in ten B2B firms invest in linear TV, radio, streaming or cinema for brand building, with cinema used by just 1.1%.
In B2B, reach is the easy part, because everyone can post. The advantage is credibility, and the data shows marketers know it: they rate thought leadership as their most effective brand builder while under-funding it. Spend where you create belief, not just impressions, and make social the megaphone for genuine expertise. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
If four in five of your competitors build brand on the same social feeds, matching them isn't strategy, out-thinking them with credible, distinctive content is.
Is your B2B brand budget balanced between reach and credibility, or over-indexed on social? Tell us where you'd shift the money.
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Marketing Week (2026 State of Brand in B2B survey).
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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