Social media marketing is on the rise
The majority of marketers are planning to increase their social media marketing efforts in the next 12 months. Where are they putting their focus? About two-thirds (67 percent) will be doing more marketing on Facebook, 63 percent will be doing more marketing on YouTube, 61 percent will be doing more marketing on both Twitter and LinkedIn, 57 percent will be doing more marketing on Instagram and 42 percent will be doing more marketing on Pinterest.
Snapchat is bubbling up
Although just 5 percent of marketers surveyed currently use Snapchat, 28 percent want to learn more about it and 16 percent plan to do more with it in the coming year.
Facebook continues to dominate social media marketing
A whopping 55 percent of marketers say Facebook is their most important social media platform. The second most important platform, LinkedIn, isn’t even close, cited by just 18 percent. Despite the popularity of Facebook, 40 percent of those surveyed say they aren’t sure whether their Facebook traffic has gone down in the past year. More than one-third aren’t sure whether their Facebook marketing efforts are getting results. Recent changes to Facebook’s algorithm may be one reason for the confusion. Getting assistance from a professional service that markets your business on Facebook can help here.
Facebook also leads in paid social media marketing. A whopping 86 percent of marketers say they use Facebook ads on a regular basis, and 57 percent plan to do even more with Facebook advertising in the coming year. By comparison, just 39 percent use Google ads regularly and just 37 percent plan to do more with Google ads in the next 12 months.
A picture is worth 1,000 words
Visual content is the most commonly used type of social media content for 74 percent of marketers. Close behind our blogging (60 percent) and videos (70 percent). B2C marketers are more likely to say visual content is their most important kind of content; B2B marketers are more likely to say blogging is.
Instagram may be surpassing Pinterest
Speaking of visuals, Instagram may be sneaking up on Pinterest, despite the latter’s efforts at adding more marketing-friendly tools. More than 60 percent of B2C marketers and 48 percent of B2B marketers are planning to do more marketing on Instagram in the coming year. However, only 47 percent of B2C marketers and 35 percent of B2B marketers plan to increase marketing efforts on Pinterest.
Online video is hot
Some 60 percent of marketers in the survey say they currently use online video to market themselves, and 73 percent plan to do more with video in the coming year. Specifically, half of marketers say they’d like to do more with live video tools like Periscope and Facebook Live.