67. What We Know So Far: Surprising Statistics
Although social media adoption has grown exponentially, it’s still in its formative years. A few of the biggest questions on the mind of marketers and business owners are: How do I measure the value of social media? What are the best platforms I should use to reach my customers? Can I generate leads? How much time and money and how many resources should I invest in it?
We’ll be able to answer these questions much easier in a couple years, but what we can do right now is examine the trends shaping social media and social networking through 2014. We can also analyze results so far to see what areas are gaining the most momentum.
The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has studied the adoption of social media for three years (2007–2009). The study tracks familiarity and adoption of social media with the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing companies in the United States.1 Six types of social media were studied: blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards, and wikis. The results show skyrocketing growth of social media. Here are a few of the highlights:
1. The Inc. 500 reports that social media is “very important” to their business and marketing strategy. This almost doubled in one year, with 44 percent saying social media is a primary part of their business and marketing strategy. Ninety-one percent use at least one social media tool.
2. Social networking is the most popular, with 75 percent of the Inc. 500 very familiar with it. A surprising 52 percent of Inc. 500 companies use Twitter.
3. Forty-five percent of the Inc. 500 now blog, compared to 39 percent in 2008. The use of blogs increased to 45 percent in 2009, and 44 percent of companies that do not currently implement a blog intend to have one.
4. Social media is regarded to be highly effective for companies across the board. Success measures are defined as hits, comments, leads, or sales. Twitter is reported as successful 82 percent of the time and all other tools achieved at minimum an 87 percent success rate.
5. Social media is used for brand and company monitoring by 68 percent.
I like this report because it trends three years of data. It’s also a great barometer of what the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. consider to be the most important and how fast they are adopting various types of social media.
Business Results from Social Media
Marketers are not hesitating to invest in social media. Over 73 percent of chief marketing officers say they will increase budgets for social media solutions.2 Forrester predicts social media will have the steepest growth over any other media channel. Investments will grow at 34 percent CAGR over the next five years and are estimated to reach $3 billion by 2014.
What do businesses hope to gain from social media investments? According to the “Social Media Marketing Industry Report,” the number-one benefit of social media is generating exposure for a business.3 The top three benefits for social media ranked in priority are 1) increasing exposure for my business (81 percent); 2) increasing traffic/subscribers (61 percent); and 3) building new business partnerships (56 percent).
This was followed closely by an increase in search engine rankings (52 percent) and generating qualified leads (48 percent). The all important question of “Did it help you close business?” was cited as a benefit by 35 percent of respondents.
It’s interesting to note there appears to be a direct relationship between the amount of time spent weekly on social media and the amount of experience a person has with it. Ten percent of experienced marketers average a whopping 20 hours or more per week, and this same group also claims to close more business than light users. If you can’t devote that kind of time to social media, you will be relieved to know that marketers spending six or more hours per week claim “exceptionally positive results.”
It’s also useful to look at what hinders adoption of social media. Company culture influences a company’s social media usage. Most large companies govern communications with a very tight leash, and this extends to social media. Some marketers participate in social media under the radar and others follow protocol which tends to get caught up in corporate governance and legal teams. Risk tolerance and fear are a few of the key issues slowing adoption of social media.