Nearly 60% of Marketers Use Social Media for 6+ Hours Per Week

The “2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses,” from Social Media Examiner, shares gobs of insights into how marketers are using social media and what their future plans with social media are. Among the findings was that the majority of marketers spend at least six hours using social media each week, with more than a third spending at least 11 hours using social media each week.

The study surveyed more than 3,300 marketers in hopes of understanding how they use social media to grow and promote their businesses. Among its findings were the top 10 social media questions marketers want answered:

1. How do I measure the effect of social media marketing on my business?
2. How do I integrate and manage all of my social media marketing activities?
3. What are the best ways to sell with social media?
4. How do I improve customer engagement with social media?
5. How do I master the use of specific social media platforms?
6. How do I effectively find my target audience with social media?
7. What are the best practices in social media marketing?
8. How do I use social media in niche markets?
9. What are the trends in social media marketing?
10. How do I best use my time to maximize social media activities?

Understanding social media best practices dropped from No. 2 last year to No. 7 this year, while managing the time commitment dropped from No. 3 to No. 10. However, integration jumped up the list from No. 9 to No. 2.

The study also found that 93 percent of marketers were employing social media for marketing purposes. Meanwhile, 90 percent of marketers either strongly agreed or agreed that social media was important to their businesses.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said they have less than a year of social media marketing experience, while 39 percent said they have 1-3 years of experience, and 11 percent said they have 3+ years of experience.

According to the study, 58 percent of marketers use social media for at least six hours per week, while 34 percent use it for 11 hours or more per week. Meanwhile, 15 percent of marketers said they spend 20+ hours each week on social media.

The biggest benefit of social media marketing cited by respondents was exposure for their businesses, which received an 88 percent response. This was followed by increased traffic/subscribers with 72 percent, improved search rankings with 62 percent, new business partnerships with 58 percent, generating qualified leads with 51 percent, reducing overall marketing expenses with 49 percent, and improved sales with 43 percent.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were far and away the most popular social media tools used by marketers, in that order.

The Social Media Examiner study also showed that 77 percent of marketers plan on boosting their YouTube and/or video marketing use in the near future. Meanwhile, only 19 percent of respondents plan on increasing their use of Groupon or a similar group-buying site in the near future, while 67 percent have no plans to utilize it.

Source:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2011/