Today we are going to take a look at what’s happening with social media marketing, that topic that remains of keen interest to anyone doing business in the digital era. As it happens, we recently reviewed the latest report on social media marketing by leading analysts Social Media Examiner, and saw some very interesting data and trends. At Marketing Plus, we are constantly comparing our test results against industry benchmarks to see where we’re keeping pace, what areas we need to improve on, and how we’re improving year over year.
This study surveyed nearly 3,000 professional marketers to gain an understanding of how they are using social media to grow their businesses and promote their brands.
– 92% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business, up from 86% in 2013.
Regardless of your experience in the social media whirl, we think you’ll find something useful in this report. If you’re relatively new to social media, check out the time commitment, benefits and platforms that other companies are using. If you’re social media-savvy, compare your plan against other marketers, see which platforms they’re using and see if you are achieving similar results in your media mix.
Top 5 social media questions
As the use of social media marketing continues to grow worldwide, the needs of marketers change. At least 83% of marketers surveyed felt they are struggling with social media; the top social media questions marketers want answered can be summarized in the following keywords: tactics, engagement, measurement, tools and audience.
- What social tactics are most effective? The number one question marketers want answered (91%) is which tactics work best. This number probably relates to the constant changes taking place across most social networks.
- What are the best ways to engage my audience with social media? Learning how to best connect with customers remains the number two question companies want answered (89%). It stands to reason that as more businesses use social media effectively, those that do the best job at engaging will stand out from the clutter.
- How do I measure ROI on my social media marketing? 88% of marketers want to know how to measure their return on investment for social media activities. As much as this question has been asked and discussed over the last few years, few marketers have definitively figured this one out.
- What are the best social management tools? As online activity increases and social networks grow, some feel automated tools can simplify social media marketers ‘ jobs. 85% of survey respondents didn’t know what tools are best.
- How do I find my target audience with social media? Figuring out how to first find – then target — customers and prospects remains a huge concern for marketers (83%). Because of the scale and complexity of social networks, even pro marketers sometimes need guidance.
Some surprising report findings:
Among all the data we found in this report, some factoids jumped out at us:
•Blogging dominates future plans: A very large number of marketers — 68% — plan on increasing their use of blogging, making it the top area marketers and advertisers will invest in for this year.
•Podcasting a growth area: Only 6% of marketers use podcasting, yet 21% plan on increasing their podcasting activities in 2014 — a more than three-fold increase — and 28% of marketers want to learn more about it.
• Most marketers aren’t sure their Facebook marketing is effective: Only 34% of marketers (slightly more than one in three) think that their Facebook efforts are effective.
– Time spent makes a difference. Of those investing at least 6 hours a week on social media, 78% found benefit compared to 56% of those spending 5 hours or fewer per week.
What are the most-used social media platforms?
As might be expected, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, Google+ and Pinterest were the top seven platforms used by marketers, with Facebook being number one. All other platforms figure much less in importance in comparison to the top seven. (The top six in the chart have remained virtually the same since 2012.)
A closer look at Facebook
We asked marketers if they agreed with the statement: “My Facebook marketing is effective.” Only 34% of marketers feel like their Facebook efforts are working, which is actually an increase from 2013. However, most marketers either don’t know or said that their Facebook marketing is not working. Clearly, there is as much room for wasting time as there is to make a real success with SMM.
Interestingly, B2C marketers were far more likely to agree or strongly agree (50%) than their B2B peers (34%). Larger businesses were much more likely to agree that their Facebook marketing efforts were effective. For example, 52% of businesses with 1,000 or more employees agreed, compared to only 34% of the self-employed.
– Original written content is most important: 58% of marketers said that original written content is the single most important form of content, followed by original visual assets (19%).
What are the actual benefits of social media marketing?
The top two benefits of social media marketing are increasing exposure and increasing traffic. Nearly all marketers said that their social media efforts have gained exposure for their businesses. Increasing traffic was the second major benefit, with 80% reporting positive results. Most marketers are using social media to develop loyal fans (72%) and gain marketplace intelligence (71%).
Changes since 2013: The largest increase in benefits reported since 2013 were developing loyal fans, which increased to 72% from 65% in 2013, followed by increased sales, which jumped to 50% from 43% in 2013.
Looking forward with your social media plan
By now some questions may have come to mind as you review some of the report’s findings.
“Can I get more competitive advantage and grow my business by investing more time in social media?”
“Should we turn to experienced social media marketers to prevent wasting resources?”
“What are some of the real benefits of investing more in social media?”
In our next blog post, we’ll be examining more closely some of the benefits of social media in this industry study:
– Improved Sales
– Increased Exposure
– Generated Leads
– Increased Exposure
– Increased Traffic
If you find that you don’t have time to manage your social media, that is what we are here for. Marketing Plus will see to it that your brand is out there 24/7. Call us and set up a meeting to review your social goals — we can design the solution you need to manage your critical social media and content creation tasks.
