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.
