How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future?

Written by Jeff Bullas - View Comments
Categories: Social Media Marketing, Social Media Survey


Social media marketing is continuing to morph and evolve so keeping up to date with the latest trends and seeing what other businesses are planning to do in the future is essential to stay ahead of the game. Last year I looked at what were the top social media channels that were being used by companies to market and promote their business and those channels  have continued to be an important part of  a marketers toolbox. Social Media Marketing Channels Being Used In the Future

A recent survey by Social Media Examiner of  1,868 business leaders shows what that future holds for social media marketing in 2010 as well as what is currently being practiced.

The 3 standouts for me from the survey were

1. What platforms are the experienced social media marketers currently spending their time on?

2. What Social Media Channels were they going to increase their time and resources on in the near future?

3. What are the Social Media  Tools used by B2B versus B2C?

Standout One: So what are the experienced social media marketers currently focusing on?

I have certainly noticed that the use of Twitter as a promotional and marketing tool has been discovered to be very effective and I have personally found this to be the case. Experienced marketers have certainly agreed in this survey with Twitter ranking first with 96%.

The thing to take note of here is that the experienced marketers have found out what works and what doesn’t, so if you have only been using social media for a short while its worth being a good student and let the mentors give you some guidance.

  • Twitter 96%
  • Facebook 91%
  • LinkedIn 89%
  • Blogs 86%
  • YouTube and Other Video 64%

Social Media Channels Used By Experienced Social Media Marketers

Note:  This group is also a major proponent of video, significantly more so than others.

Standout Two: What channels are the business marketers going to increase in the near future?

Surprisingly, marketers indicated that blogs were the top area in which they planned on increasing their social media efforts. Small businesses were much more likely to be increasing their blogging activities at 81% saying they were going to increase their efforts in this area. Facebook was next at 76%, YouTube or Video at 73%, Twitter 71% and LinkedIn at 67% wanting to increase their activity.

Blogs Are Top In Future For Social Media Marketing

Standout Three: How do the Social Media Tools used by B2B vary from B2C focused businesses?

I am quite often asked what are the best social media marketing channels for B2B and this survey shows that B2B business marketers are using Twitter more and LinkedIn and B2C are much more focused on Facebook.

Also note that B2B companies are utilizing blogs more.

Social Media Tools Used By B2B vs B2C

So what are your plans for social media marketing for the next 12 months?



Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
  • http://www.greggmorris.com/curated-stories-may-7-2010 Storytelling Social Media Marketing PR Business & Technology Curated Stories May 7, 2010

    [...] How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? Published: May 7, 2010 Source: Jeffbullas's Blog Social media marketing is continuing to morph and evolve so keeping up to date with the latest trends and seeing what other businesses are planning to do in the future is essential to stay ahead of the game. La… [...]

  • http://briancurrin.wordpress.com Brian Currin

    Perfect timing, thank Jeff … I have been asked to do a talk next month to 40 educators on “Identifying and selecting social media channels and tools” and this article is exactly what I need to include in my presentation.

    Brian

  • http://briancurrin.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/how-will-marketers-change-their-social-media-activities-in-the-future-%c2%ab-jeffbullass-blog/ How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? « Jeffbullas’s Blog « Brian Currin

    [...] via How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? « Jeffbullas’s Blog. [...]

  • http://webmarketersa.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/how-will-marketers-change-their-social-media-activities-in-the-future/ How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? « Web.Marketer
  • http://twitter.com/joefblaze/status/17137764648 Joe Blaze

    RT @jeffbullas: How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4

  • http://twitter.com/kenburge/status/17341602774 Ken Burge

    RT @jeffbullas: How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4

  • http://twitter.com/andressilvaa/status/17341823902 Andrés Silva A

    QUESTION: How Will Marketers Change Their #SocialMedia Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4 (via @jeffbullas)

  • http://twitter.com/nuntiusaugust/status/17345149704 hannes wengle

    RT @andressilvaa QUESTION: How Will Marketers Change Their #SocialMedia Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4 (via @jeffbullas)

  • http://twitter.com/viamultimedia/status/17644101373 via multimedia

    RT @jeffbullas How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4

  • http://twitter.com/tracetv/status/17920390751 Tracy Ready

    rt @jeffbullas How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4

  • http://twitter.com/emermccourt/status/18022835499 Emer McCourt

    RT @jeffbullas: How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4

  • http://twitter.com/wwwtalker/status/18224592175 brad richard

    RT @jeffbullas: How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4

  • http://twitter.com/edwinduchenne/status/18333287612 Edwin van der Velden

    RT @jeffbullas: How Will Marketers Change Their Social Media Activities In The Future? http://bit.ly/926Pf4

  • http://twitter.com/edwinduchenne/status/18426338686 Edwin van der Velden

    @jibecompany nice article about the future usage of social media http://ow.ly/2aF7Q

  • http://www.hauteoc.com Kathy Marino

    Nice Jeff. Yep, found that Twitter is like a newsroom stadium for B2B networking, and Facebook the watercooler for B2C. You do a B2B shout out, and then engage B2C- lol. Great stats.

  • http://www.c-c.com.au Jerry Crockford

    Thanks for that article.

    Interesting to see that B2B companies are using Twitter more. In my mind, there is a question mark about whether high level decision-makers are actively tweeting and reading tweets, or whether they are delegating this task.

    I have contacted three large service firms here in Brisbane (Australia), and found this to be the case with all three. They are on Twitter, and posting frequently — but the people at the top of the chain are not handling it.

    It is a different story for SME’s where owners etc are the Twitterers, but further up? Not sure.

    Great article. Thanks!

  • http://www.mailblaze.com Georgia Christian

    The stats and info are, thanks Jeff. I’m fairly new to the social media marketing game but Twitter is certainly proving to be the most useful with regards to networking and getting our name out there, where it counts.

  • Eden R

    Great information Jeff, thanks.
    I participated in the survey from SME and was glad to see the results in this format. I have both B2C and B2B businesses and thought I was the only person that looked at each platform differently in that light…I feel so justified now!
    Thanks again and I enjoy your blog.
    Eden R.

  • http://twitter.com/mylivingpower Laurie Wallin

    Well, I only use Linked-In insofar as I have twitter automatically update that program… so I’m definitely going to work more toward collaboration and networking there!

  • Annie

    Interesting info! We are a Scandinavian B2B company providing an international cloud service for project collaboration. We tend to find some of our customers at Twitter and LinkedIn. We still put some energy on a Facebook site as it is great branding to be there. We also use YouTube for our demo/marketing films and will soon relaunch our popular Project Blog. As project managers are a very diverse target group from the ages 20-60, we try to focus on providing as much useful pm information for them in different platforms so it is easy for them to find. Does it make any sense to you?

blog comments powered by Disqus