Being “normal” is boring. We know that. In fact, our whole approach to our clients’ social media, videos, and other marketing initiatives is to stand out from the “normal.”
However, understanding what other businesses are doing, especially ones that are similar to yours, is an effective way of taking stock in just how healthy your social media and other marketing practices are holding up.
Each year, Social Media Examiner releases a report that culls from 5,700 marketers. And, while it really just details numbers and not the heart and creativity of social media initiatives, it still has some interesting bits of data.
Let’s take a look.
Platforms
- Facebook is still the champ.
- The most used platforms, in order, are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat.
- 10 percent fewer marketers are using Pinterest while 10 percent more are using Instagram.
- More than 50 percent said that they want to increase their Instagram activity and/or marketing this coming year.
- 40 percent of marketers researched aren’t sure if their Facebook marketing is working and 53 percent have seen their reach fall this past year.
Content
- Facebook = eight times a day, Instagram = four times a day, Twitter = six times a day, LinkedIn = four times a day, Pinterest = three times a day and Snapchat = once a day.
- 73 percent of marketers plan to use even more visuals (photos and video) next year.
- 61 percent plan on creating live video next year. (This is a speciality of Lehigh Valley with Love Media, jussayin’)
- Facebook Messenger, virtual reality/360 video and artificial intelligence/bots are starting to get looked at more by marketers.
Time
- 26 percent of marketers spend five hours per week or less on social media.
- 64 percent spend more than six hours per week or more on social media.
- 41 percent spend more than 11 hours per week or more on social media.
- 20 percent of marketers spend 20 hours per week or more on social media.
Advertising and budget
- 93 percent of marketers use Facebook ads on a regular basis, and 64 percent plan to increase their ads this coming year.
- Following Facebook, marketers advertise on, in order of frequency, Instagram, LinkedIn, then Twitter.
- Marketers plan to increase spending on, in order, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn ads.
- More than half of marketers say they have no plans to advertise on Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest.
Results and ROI
- 62 percent of marketers are either uncertain or can’t measure the ROI of their social media.
- Here’s what they do know. By investing at least six hours a week on social media …
- 90 percent of marketers increased exposure for their business.
- 81 percent found website traffic grew.
- 71 percent developed loyal fans.
- 69 percent saw lead generation benefits.
- More than 50 percent said it helped improve sales.
The people behind the scenes
- Most social media marketers have either a little or a lot of experience. 24 percent have more than five years’ experience, while 23 percent have less than one year.
- The majority of social media marketers are between the ages of 30 and 59.
- The participants were 60 percent female and 40 percent male.
What does this all mean? Well, of course, it depends. It depends on if you’re doing all of your marketing yourself or if your working with a partner, like Lehigh Valley with Love Media, who can effectively search through these figures to position your business to be the best it can be on social media.
Please be sure to reach out to us directly at info@lehighvalleywithlovemedia.com to discuss your future social media marketing plans, or if you’re interested in a fun video to get that social media engagement started.