What, How and Where Companies Invest in Social Media Marketing

With so many techniques, technologies and tactics floating around how can you effectively put social media to work for you and where do you start? Read on my friend, we’ll get you going.

Don’t get intimidated or confused by the plethora of websites and social media outlets available. From Twitter, FaceBook, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram and YouTube just pick one to get to know and to start with.

Remember that social media is just one additional outlet in your overall marketing campaign and that the time and energy to understand it and use it effectively must be tempered with dedication to the other aspects of your overall marketing plan.

Or a better bet may be to hire a proven professional to do it for you — make the honest self assessment of your technological proficiency and determine where your personal resources will be best spent.

Important Social Network Stats for Marketers

According to a report from the Social Media Examiner which based its findings on an extensive survey of 2,887 marketers (59% B2C, 41% B2B), 68% of B2C marketers surveyed chose Facebook as the most important social platform. Twitter was second (10% of respondents), followed by blogging (6%), and LinkedIn (6%).

This is interesting because 33% of B2B marketers stated that LinkedIn was the most important social platform for their business followed by Facebook (31%), Twitter (16%), and blogging (11%).

Facebook was the most widely used social platform by both B2C and B2B marketers surveyed (97% and 89%, respectively) but B2C marketers were more focused on YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram, whereas B2B marketers were using LinkedIn, Google+, and blogging in the majority of their social media marketing campaigns.

Time and Money Social Media Investment Expenditures

In the near future, marketers plan to devote more time to blogging (68% of those surveyed plan to use more), YouTube (67%), Twitter (67%), LinkedIn (64%), and FaceBook (64%).

B2B marketers say they are more likely to increase blogging activity (74%) compared with B2C marketers (63%).

64% of marketers surveyed say they are using social media six hours or more on average per week—a slight increase compared with 2013, when 62% reported six or more hours a week.

19% of marketers say they spend more than 20 hours on average each week on social media.

But the fruits of these time and money expenditures are reflected in the benefits of social media marketing the respondents noted. 92% of marketers surveyed say their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. Further, 80% say they have seen increased traffic from their social media efforts.

Experiment and Tweak as Needed

Social media marketing is a fluid activity that allows you to experiment until you gets things right and figure out how to best spread your message to the most relevant people in the most cost effective way.