Selling on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

With people spending a significant amount of time on social networks, companies are also flocking to the different available platforms. This is as simple as businesses going to where people are, hoping these people will listen to their message and eventually buy products.

This infographic from Top Web Design Schools says, however, that not all social media platforms are created equal for marketing to audiences.

Nonetheless, 79 percent of marketers say that they have integrated social media into their traditional marketing activities. Furthermore, 86 percent of marketers say that social media is important for their business.

What, then, are the social networking platforms used by marketers?

“Companies use a wide range of types of social media, from Facebook to Pinterest, but Facebook is still king of social media,” the infographic notes. Twitter with 80 percent followed by LinkedIn with 70 percent.
Next on the list is blogging which has 58 percent of marketers saying they use the platform. This is followed by YouTube, the video sharing juggernaut by Google. Another Google property, Google+, is next with 42 percent.

Google+ is followed by Pinterest at a close 41 percent. There are more platforms used including photo sharing platforms (e.g. Instagram – 18 percent), social bookmarking (e.g. StumbleUpon – 10 percent), podcasting (5 percent), question and answer sites (4 percent), and daily deals (4 percent).



Meanwhile, when it comes to single most important platform, marketers overwhelmingly choose Facebook when asked (49 percent). Next are LinkedIn (16 percent) and blogging (14 percent) followed by Twitter (12 percent).

The infographic notes that 4 percent of marketers say YouTube is the most important social media platform for them. 2 percent choose Google+ while Pinterest, forums and others all got 1 percent.

When it comes to reasons cited by marketers for their use of social media, increasing exposure takes the lead at 89 percent. This is followed by increasing traffic (75 percent), providing market insight (69 percent), developing loyal fans (65 percent) and generating leads (61 percent).

Other reasons include improving search rankings (58 percent), developing business partnerships (54 percent), reducing marketing costs (47 percent) and improving sales (43 percent).

According to this infographic, 62 percent of companies that spend 40 or more hours a week using social media earn new business through their efforts.

Just six hours a week can make a difference as more than 92 percent of marketers indicated that their social efforts increased exposure for their businesses.

At least 61 percent of businesses with 10 or fewer employees agreed that social media reduced marketing expenses while only 38 percent of businesses with 1,000 or more employees said so.
However, only one in four marketers can directly measure return of investment for their social efforts, the infographic says.

Learn more including what the future holds and how much each popular social platform increased their usage from the Top Web Design Schools infographic below.