TMO research: Social Media Marketing in 2014

Recent findings from Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report about how marketers are using social media to grow their business caught our attention. The brand’s 6th annual study, a 50 page report packed full of insights and data-rich content, highlights some interesting points about how the plethora of social channels are being used among the wider marketing mix, which inspired us to find out how this fares with social following.

KEY POINTS FROM THE REPORT

Here are some of the main insights:

• 92% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business and place high value on it.
• 37% of marketers are spending 11 hours or more a week on social media, while 64% are using channels for 6 hours or more. The hardcore 19% are spending more than 20 hours a week.
• 51% of those with less than a year’s experience spend 5 hours or less per week, while for those who have been doing this for 2 years or longer, 65% spend 6 hours or more per week on social activity.
• The younger the person, the more time they spend – of those spending more than 40 hours per week, 68% are under the age of 40.

SOCIAL MEDIA’S PLACE IN THE MARKETING MIX

Social media certainly holds a strong and significant position working alongside other marketing activities; 83% of marketers surveyed in this study agree that they have“integrated social media into my traditional marketing activities.” Why are brands spending so much time using social media and place so much value on it? From the findings, the two main benefits of social media marketing are:

Increasing exposure – 92% indicated that their efforts have generated more exposure for their business.
Increasing traffic – 80% reported positive results with regards to web traffic.

That’s alongside marketers using the various channels for other purposes, including developing loyal fans (72%) and gaining marketplace intelligence (71%). Looking ahead, tactics and engagement are the top areas marketers want to master – at least 89% want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage with their audience through social media.

TMO RESEARCH: ASKING OUR SOCIAL COMMUNITY

At The Media Octopus, two areas and questions stood out for us, which we wanted to ask our followers on Twitter what their views were:

QUESTION 1: Which social media platforms do you use most for marketing?

From Social media Examiner’s research, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, Google+ and Pinterest are the top seven platforms used by marketers, with the top six remaining the same since 2012. Interestingly, when asked to select the most important social platform for their business, 54% of marketers chose Facebook followed by LinkedIn (17%), Twitter (12%) and blogging (8%).

Compared to 2013, Facebook increased in importance, up to 54% from 40%, while LinkedIn slightly increased to 17% from 16%, blogging declined to 8% from 18%, allowing Twitter to take the number-three slot, remaining at 12%.

What about our social media community? Which social media platforms are used most for marketing? We set up a poll on Facebook and asked our social community on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram using the hashtag #TMOresearch. Here’s what we found:

ROUND-UP: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are currently the top three social media platforms marketers use the most for their activities.

• Facebook for data capture
• Twitter for growing client accounts and creating social dialogue between brand and consumer
• LinkedIn for business connections

QUESTION 2: Which social media platforms do you want to learn more about?

Marketers are open to changing their social media use looking ahead; 68% want to increase their use of blogging, followed by YouTube (67%), Twitter (67%), LinkedIn (64%) and Facebook (64%). 85% of them said they had no plans to utilise Snapchat, while 68% had no interest in utilising geo-location.

Regarding which social media platforms marketers most want to become more familiar with, Google+ took first place: 54% are using it but 65% aim to learn more and 61% plan on increasing Google+ activities in 2014, Social Media Examiner's research found.

Here’s what we found when we again opened up the question to our following across our social media channels:

ROUND-UP: Google+ and visual and/or video-led social media platforms are the way forward for businesses.

• There is still some uncertainty about using Google+ but it marketers are keen to incorporate it into future activities.
• Instagram, Vine and YouTube are popular as visual content becomes an even more important part of the marketing mix.

LET US HELP YOUR BUSINESS WITH SOCIAL!

Whatever your brand and message, we can understand your business to seek out creative social media opportunities to enhance your overall marketing strategy. Get in touch!