Social media is constantly evolving and it can be hard for organisations to keep track. This dynamic sphere of the digital economy is going through an exciting ‘growing up’ phase that is seeing more and more businesses participate online.
It’s always instructive to see how other organisations use social media so when a major survey is published it’s interesting to see what trends emerge.
The 6th Annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2014 was recently released. Based on a survey of over 2,800 marketers the Social Media Examiner report has some statistics that all businesses should take into account when reviewing their digital marketing strategies and budgets.
It’s not surprising that the number of marketers who thought social media was important, increased from 86% last year to 92%.
However, the survey showed that many marketers were still on a learning curve. It seems that social media may be everywhere, but certainly not everyone is an expert.
If your organisation is on a steep social media learning curve, take heart, many of the respondents were seeking to find out more about several key aspects of social media management.
The topics of most interest covered tactics, engagement, measurement, tools and audience. Specifically, there is a continued quest for the right social media tactics (91 per cent). The next most prominent issue was how to engage with their audience via social media (89 per cent). Some 88 per cent wanted to find better ways to measure the return of social marketing and 85 per cent said they were still seeking tools to manage social media. The need to target customers and prospects was also prominent at 84 per cent.
Platforms
The survey showed that Facebook (54 per cent) and LinkedIn (17 per cent) were the two most important social media platforms with 64 per cent indicating they want to increase their use of LinkedIn.
Even so, marketers seem unsure whether Facebook is an effective marketing tool with only 34 per cent stating their efforts with this platform were effective.
Digital assets
Some 68 per cent plan to increase their blogging activities. While only 6 per cent put effort into podcasts, 21 per cent said they wanted to increase their activities, and 28 per cent wanted to learn more.
Original content emerged as a significant focus area with 58 per cent and reflects changes to the Google algorithm in order to improve quality.
Benefits of social media
The survey showed that the majority of respondent looked to social media to deliver the following benefits:
- Increased exposure – 92 per cent
- Increased traffic – 80 per cent
- Develop loyal fans – 72 per cent
- Provide marketplace insights – 71 per cent
- Generate leads – 66 per cent
- Improve search ranking – 61 per cent
- Grow business partnerships – 58 per cent
- Reduce marketing expense – 51 per cent
Industry specific view
The survey supported the distinct appeal of certain social media platforms for distinct industry sectors. More B2C marketers nominated Facebook as their number one option while B2B marketers nominated LinkedIn as their top choice – but not by much.
Here’s the breakdown:
B2B social media platforms
- LinkedIn – 33%
- Facebook – 31%
- Twitter – 31%
- Blogging – 11%
- Google Plus – 3%
- YouTube – 3%
B2C social media platforms
- Facebook – 68%
- Twitter -10%
- Blogging -6%
- LinkedIn – 6%
- YouTube – 2%
- Google Plus – 2%
- Pinterest – 2%
- Social Review Sites (Yelp) – 1%
The implications of the survey results will be analysed in more detail in future blogs. Meanwhile if you would like to discuss your social media strategy give us a call.
Fatpublisher provides social media services to our clients. If you are interested in finding out about our social media packages, please contact us.
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