Social Media Examiner recently released its 4th annual Social Media Marketing Report. The 42-page report sets out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing based on more than 3,800 responses from marketers across different markets (an overwhelming majority of respondents are based in the U.S., though). Here are five key findings from the report:
- The top two benefits of social media marketing are increased exposure and increased traffic, according to 85% and 69% of the respondents, respectively.
- 55% of respondents indicated improved search rankings as a benefit of social media marketing. Surprisingly, this is a decrease from 2011 where 62% viewed social media marketing as a means to improve search rankings. I look forward to seeing this figure in one year from now when we’ll be a lot wiser on the magnitude of SPYW.
- Gaining market insight through social media made its way into the top 3. The study found that B2B companies (68%) were significantly more likely than B2C (59%) to use social media for insight-gathering.
- Converting fans/followers into loyal ones doesn’t happen overnight. This may not come as any surprise, however, it’s supported by the report, which clearly indicates that the time invested makes a difference. 60% of those spending at least 6 hours a week found benefit in using social as a platform to acquire loyal customers, compared to just 46% of those spending 5 hours or less per week.
- 40% of survey respondents are using Google+. Being introduced less than a year ago, this is indeed impressive – but there’s still a long way to Facebook’s 92% penetration. With Google leveraging its search dominance to boost its own social network, the importance of having a business presence on Google+ can’t be underestimated.
These are just a few of the many interesting findings. Check it out for yourself – get the full report here or watch the video in which author, Michael A. Stelzner, provides an overview of the full report.
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Immanuel Simonsen
Research Manager at Webcertain
As the Research Manager of multilingual web marketing agency Webcertain, Immanuel heads up the company’s global market research activities and large content marketing projects. He is the author of several reports and guides, including ‘The Essential Guide to Rel-Alternate-Hreflang’ and ‘The Webcertain Global Search and Social Report 2013’. Apart from being a tutor at the International Marketing School -- teaching online marketing professionals on business opportunities around the globe -- Immanuel is a regular speaker at the International Search Summit, a leading event series dedicated to multilingual search and social media marketing.
Latest posts by Immanuel Simonsen (see all)
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