Top 7 Social Media Platforms Used by Business

by Blair Evan Ball on May 24, 2013

Social Media Coach Blair BallSocial Media Marketing, are there benefits? That’s one of the questions I’m most frequently asked. If I put in the time will I get results? How much time do I need to put in to get results? Here are the latest Social Media Marketing survey results.

How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses

Video marketing holds the top spot for future plans: A significant 76% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2013.
Marketers want to learn most about blogging: While 58% of marketers are blogging, 62% want to learn more about it and 66% plan on increasing blogging activities in 2013.
Podcasting set to explode in 2013: Only 5% of marketers are involved with podcasting, yet 24% plan on increasing their podcasting activities in 2013—almost a five-fold increase—and 32% of marketers want to learn more about it.
Tactics and engagement are top areas marketers want to master: At least 88% of marketers want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage their audience with social media.
Word of caution about Tactics.

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

– Sun Tzu

Top three benefits of social media marketing: The number-one benefit of social media marketing is generating more business exposure (reported 89% of marketers), followed by increasing traffic (75%) and providing marketplace insight (69%). All top three benefits were up year or year from 2011.

Top seven social media networks/tools for marketers 2012:

  1. Facebook
  2. Twitter
  3. LinkedIn
  4. Blogging
  5. YouTube
  6. Google+
  7. Pinterest

Were the top seven social media tools used by marketers, in that order.

Social Media Marketing Platforms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social media marketing still takes a lot of time: A significant 62% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more and 36% for 11 or more hours weekly. This is an INCREASE over 2012, when 59% reported 6 or more hours a week and 33% reported 11 or more hours weekly. It’s interesting to note that nearly 17% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media.

Social Media Time Commitment

Marketers still place high value on social media: A significant 86% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business. That is up slightly from 83% in 2011.

Social Media Benefits

The top two benefits of social media marketing are;

  1. Increased exposure.  
  2. Increased traffic.

What continues to surprise me is most businesses want increased exposure which is the #1 benefit, yet do not take advantage of SEO or Search Engine Optimization strategies to achieve that goal.

Social Media Benefits

Years using social media marketing

Forty-seven percent of marketers surveyed have at least two years of social media
marketing experience.

Social Media Years Practicing

Generated leads

By spending as little as 6 hours per week, 64%+ of marketers see lead generation
benefits with social media.

Social Media Generated Leads

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging took first place as the area marketers most want to learn about, displacing
Google+, the leader from the 2012 report.

Social Media Want to Learn More

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The self-employed (62%) were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

  •  Will Social Media continue to grow? Move at a faster pace?
  • If you wait to get into the game, will you be able to catch up with the competition?

Source: 2013 Marketing Report Social Media Examiner

Now’s the right time to ramp up your Social Media Marketing efforts. Prepare1 can guide you through the Social Media Maze.

 

How to Reclaim Your Edge: 5 Tips

 

Join us for one of our upcoming Social Media Marketing Workshops. Learn first hand, how to succeed in business and life using these tools.

    Facebook

    Google+

   YouTube

   SEO

 

 

How to Reclaim Your Edge: 5 Tips

   Blair Evan Ball

   Founder/CEO Prepare1

   Prepare1.com

 

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