Social Media has Gone Mainstream

: Prepare1

Social Media Marketing for businesses, it represents an unprecedented marketing opportunity that transcends traditional middlemen and connects companies directly with customers. Consumers are not responding as well to the Old Traditional ways of marketing. This is why nearly every business on the planet is exploring social media marketing initiatives or should be.

“Charlene Li, one of the world’s leading thinkers on social media and co-founder of the Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm in San Mateo, Calif., predicts that companies that do not get on the social media bandwagon soon–within three to five years–will not survive.”

Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner just completed their study of Social Media Marketing, and here are the top takeaways.

• Marketers place high value on social media: A significant 90% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.

• Measurement and integration are top areas marketers want to master: One third of all social media marketers want to know how to monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media and integrate their social media activities.

• Social media marketing takes a lot of time: The majority of marketers (58%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and more than a third (34%) invest 11 or more hours weekly.

• Video marketing on the rise: A significant 77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2011.

• Marketers seek to learn more about Facebook and blogging: 70% of marketers want to learn more about Facebook and 69% want to learn more about blogging.

• The top benefits of social media marketing: The number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating more business exposure, as indicated by 88% of marketers. Increased traffic (72%) and improved search
rankings (62%) were also major advantages.

• The top social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order. Facebook has eclipsed Twitter to take the top spot since our 2010 study.

• Social media outsourcing underutilized: Only 28% of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing.

How many of you would like more exposure for your business? How about increased traffic? More SALES?

That’s the power of Social Media Marketing if done with the right strategy!!!