Every year the English-language marketing resource Social Media Examiner surveys thousands of marketers and publishes a large industry report on how businesses work in social media. We have translated the second part of the 2016 study and gathered the key figures in a single article — this will save you about 25 minutes of reading the English original. Below are the five questions marketers are most eager to answer, and the statistics behind them.
Five questions marketers are looking to answer
The study sets out the main questions social media marketers face today. No fewer than 86% of respondents admitted they are doing everything they can to find the answer to precisely these five questions.
- Tactics. Which social media tactics are the most effective? This is question number one: 92% of the marketers surveyed would like an answer to it. That is hardly surprising, given the constant changes in social media algorithms.
- Engagement. What is the best way to engage your audience through social media? The question of how to build a better connection with people consistently concerns 90% of marketers. Customer interest and loyalty are becoming an increasingly important competitive advantage.
- Measurement. How do you measure the return on investment in social media marketing? 86% of marketers want to learn ways to calculate the profitability of such spending.
- Audience. How do you find your target audience on social media? How to track down loyal customers and potential buyers across the internet is a question that has long troubled marketers (86%). Right now they are looking for guidance on how to navigate the vast social networks effectively and find the right people there.
- Tools. Which social media management tools are the best? Marketers are looking for a tool that would make their social media tasks easier. Tellingly, 86% of them do not know which tools are actually the best.
How important social media is for business
90% of marketers state that social media is important for their business. That is slightly lower than last year's 2015 study, where 58% strongly agreed and 34% agreed — 92% combined.
The second question concerned experience: how many years marketers have been using social media promotion. 59% have at least two years of such experience. As the study showed, the number of years working with social media strategies also affects which social platforms marketers take an interest in.
Platforms marketers want to know more about
Facebook took first place, raising its score from 68% in 2015 to 73% in 2016. Instagram's score grew from 49% to 55%. Snapchat also showed significant growth — from 19% in 2015 to 28% in 2016.
B2C marketers are more interested in information about Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram than their B2B colleagues. B2B marketers, meanwhile, are far keener to learn about LinkedIn and SlideShare.
| Platform | B2C | B2B |
|---|---|---|
| 77% | 65% | |
| 60% | 47% | |
| 49% | 37% | |
| 55% | 72% | |
| SlideShare | 24% | 34% |
Where advertising budgets go
The vast majority of survey participants use Facebook advertising (87%), Google advertising (39%) and Twitter advertising (18%). B2C marketers use Facebook advertising more often (90%) than their B2B colleagues (79%). B2B marketers, in turn, use LinkedIn advertising more (28%) than B2C marketers do (11%).
Plans for the year: where there will be more advertising
In 2016, marketers plan to increase their use of paid promotion on the following platforms.
Facebook — 57%
The largest share of those planning to increase advertising spend.
Google — 37%
The second most popular answer among plans for the year.
Twitter — 33%
Third place by intention to increase advertising activity.
LinkedIn — 31%
The same score as Instagram in marketers' plans.
Instagram — 31%
Growing interest alongside growing attention to the platform overall.
YouTube — 28%
Rounds out the list of platforms where marketers plan to increase advertising.
At the same time, 70% of survey participants said they have no plans to use Pinterest advertising.
Which paid tools marketers want to learn more about
Unsurprisingly, Facebook took first place with a score of 76%. B2C marketers are more interested in information about Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram advertising than their B2B colleagues. B2B marketers, meanwhile, are considerably more interested in learning about LinkedIn and SlideShare advertising.
| Paid tool | B2C | B2B |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook advertising | 80% | 68% |
| Instagram advertising | 54% | 40% |
| Pinterest advertising | 41% | 32% |
| LinkedIn advertising | 43% | 68% |
| SlideShare advertising | 18% | 27% |
What content marketers use
Survey participants were asked to indicate the types of content they use in their social media activity.
- A huge share of respondents — 74% — use images; in 2015 this figure stood at 71%.
- Roughly as many participants run blogs (68%) and publish video (60%).
- Live broadcasting — for example Facebook Live and Periscope — is a new content format, covered in the report for the first time this year. So far only 14% of marketers use it.
- Podcasts are used by only 10% of marketers, and this niche is relatively free.
- B2B marketers run blogs incomparably more often (78%) than B2C marketers (6%).
The most important type of content
Marketers were asked to choose the single most important type of content for their business. Only one option could be named.
Blogs came first (38%). However, this figure is considerably lower than last year's 45%. Marketing using images is in second place with a marginally lower score (37%), whereas in 2015 images were the choice of 34% of marketers. Live video broadcasting took third place, and podcasts fourth accordingly.
Blogs have been the most important content type for the past three years, but the figure is falling rapidlySocial Media Marketing Industry Report, 2016
Blogging matters more to B2B marketers: 49% named it the most important content type, while among their B2C colleagues only 33% gave blogs the preference. B2C marketers, by contrast, consider images more important — 42% against 27% in B2B.
Participants were separately asked which content they would like to know more about. Video creation came first, followed by blogs and then image creation. It is worth noting that 50% of marketers want to learn more about live video broadcasting. At the same time, B2B marketers are more interested in information about podcasts (44%) than B2C marketers (38%).
Republishing content and reacting to new platforms
28% of bloggers do not republish their content — not even outside their own blog. Among those who do otherwise, most repost their material on Facebook (32%) and LinkedIn (25%). As you would expect, B2B marketers republish content on LinkedIn more often (40%) than B2C marketers (17%).
The reaction to the emergence of new social networks also proved interesting: most do nothing about it (51%) or merely register a user account (17%). Only 6% of marketers actively get involved with new platforms.
Who answered the questions
Participants for the survey were recruited by email. The survey was conducted in January 2016, with emails sent to 400 000 marketers asking them to take part. After 5 days the survey closed with 5 086 respondents.
- The largest group of participants (38%) works in small business — from 2 to 10 employees, followed by the self-employed (23%).
- 18% of those who took part in the survey work at commercial organisations with a staff of 100 or more.
- More than half of the participants (65%) are B2C marketers, with the remaining 35% from the B2B segment.
- Most participants (69%) fall into the 30 to 59 age bracket.
- Women slightly outnumbered men, making up 57% of all participants.
- Most respondents (52%) work in the USA, followed by the United Kingdom (8%), Canada (6%) and Australia (4%).
The report also provides a breakdown of survey participants by industry.
You can read the original report in English on the Social Media Examiner website. We translate and publish the most interesting English-language e-commerce and social media marketing material — come and read it.
