Social Media Examiner is known as one of the most influential social media websites and they have just released this year’s Industry Report.
Social media marketing for your business is important, and so we thought we’d share the highlights from the 50-page report which speaks to how marketers are using social media to grow businesses. The report covers the marketing industry’s current use of different social media platforms and gives insights into future trends we can expect to see.
Here are some of the findings.
Facebook is Still King, But Instagram is Hot
Facebook and Instagram are the top two platforms used by marketers … by a long shot. Facebook being used by 94% of marketers and Instagram with 73%.
All other platforms lag behind these top two.
NOTEWORTHY CHANGES SINCE 2018
• Instagram grew to 73% from 66% and surpassed LinkedIn for the first time.
• Twitter fell from 62% to 59%.
• LinkedIn expanded from 56% to 58%.
• YouTube moved up from 50% to 54%.
• Pinterest rose slightly from 27% to 28%
• Snapchat declined from 8% to 6%.
Interest in Messenger bots declined in the past year. They just haven’t caught on with marketers (perhaps because of the high value Facebook puts on engagement). Only 14% of marketers are using bots (down from 15% in 2018).
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
93% of all marketers revealed that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. The second major benefit was increased traffic, with 87% reporting positive results. These two benefits have claimed the top two positions for the last 5 years. Also notable was that generated leads increased to 74% from 64% and improved sales rose to 72% from 53%.
What platforms are marketers using to target Business to Business and Business to Consumer customers?
It’s no shocker that Facebook dominates in the B2C space (69% of marketers select it as their number-one choice). However what may be surprising for B2B marketers is that Facebook also captures the number one slot, surpassing LinkedIn.
Average Video Length
Marketers were asked about the average length of the videos they created. The most popular length was 1-3 minutes (39%) followed by 16-59 seconds (30%). A substantial 80% of marketers are creating videos that are 3 minutes or less.