Marketers view social media a key to their strategies.
The Sixth annual Social Media Industry Report, published by Social Media Examiner, showed almost all (97%) marketers were participating in social media marketing, with 92% stating that this activity was "important to their business" - a 6% increase on the previous year.
Social Media Report Image: Sinopec |
The main benefits of social media highlighted by the 2800 global respondents, was increased exposure of their organisation (92%) and increased website traffic (80%). However, developing loyal fans and providing market insight also ranked highly.
The most commonly used social media platform was Facebook at 94%, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn. Unsurprisingly, Facebook proved more popular with B2C marketers, while LinkedIn was the overwhelming platform of choice amongst B2B respondents.
All of which proves that social media is a 'must have' weapon in the marketer's armoury. However, when it came to effectiveness the evidence was not so strong.
While more than half felt Facebook was their most important platform, the majority stated that either it was not working, or did not know the effectiveness. Only 43% felt their efforts actually delivered benefit, a 6% improvement on the previous year. Looking ahead, Google+ appeared to be the platform creating the most interest in further development.
More than 80% of respondents stated they had integrated their social media with traditional marketing activities and more than half believed that orginal written content was the most important content type over visual assets and videos.