The awesome crew over at SocialMediaExaminer.com just released their 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. The 33 page report has some great info for anyone looking to gain some insight into the evolving field of B2B social media and how it will affect the sales profession.
Here are some of the major findings from the survey:
- Marketers are mostly new to social media: A significant 65% of marketers surveyed have only been involved with social media marketing for a few months or less.
- The top benefits of social media marketing: The number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating exposure for the business, indicated by 85% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic (63%) and building new business partnerships (56%).
- In 2009, only 23% of marketers were using social media for years. Now that number has grown to 31%.
- A significant 56% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more each week and 30% for 11 or more hours weekly. It’s interesting to note that 12.5% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media.
- People age 20 to 29 spend the most time using social media marketing (59.1% spending 6+ hours weekly), followed by 40- to 49-year-olds (58.3% spending 6+ hours weekly) and then 30- to 39-year-olds (58% spending 6+ hours weekly).
- The number-one benefit of social media marketing is gaining the all-important eyeball. A significant 85% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. Improving traffic was the second major benefit, followed by building new partnerships.
- More than half of marketers indicated a rise in search engine rankings was a benefit of social media marketing. As search engine rankings improve, so will business exposure, lead generation efforts and a reduction in overall marketing expenses. More than half of marketers found social media generated qualified leads.
- Those who invest the most time in social media marketing gain the most business partnerships. However, 53.1% of people who’ve only invested a few months with social media marketing report newpartnerships were gained.
- We asked marketers which social media tools they most want to learn more about.Social bookmarking sites slightly edged out Twitter for the number-one slot. Facebook came in third, followed closely by Digg/Reddit/Mixx/StumbleUpon and then LinkedIn.
The evolving field of B2B social media is in its infancy and will continue to evolve rapidly in the years ahead. The groundwork is being laid by B2B companies that get it, they are finding ways to experiment, and they are learning what will work in the years ahead.
The opportunity is there for the taking.
Will you take it?
To download the full report from Social Media Examiner click here.
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Interesting data Chad but let me give you a view from the sales side of the coin.
Sales has not yet bought into social media as a way to generate quality leads and here is the data to prove it. On a recent OneSource poll, salespeople rated social networking as 2.1 out a potential 5 when asked the question "From which sources do you get the most qualified opportunities?" We recently posted their findings and then did a follow on poll that asked the same quesion and social networking sites got 0%.
What is up with this? Is Marketing so far ahead of the curve or, when the rubber meets the road, does social media generate interest but not opportunity? Interesting discussion….http://blog.bridgegroupinc.com/blog/tabid/47760/bid/12362/Do-You-Really-Know-the-Sources-of-Your-Best-Opportunities.aspx.
Chad, excellently compiled facts. Social intelligence gathering is steering sales organizations to meet an all new level of quota. It's fantastic how Sales 2.0 is approaching the entire sales cycle.
I'm talking about the exact same thing in my blog, minus the numbers:http://blog.insideview.com/2010/04/27/connecting-...
I think it's ridiculous to think people are actually "wasting" time on social media. Just by bringing your tweets, Facebook updates, and Flicker pictures to one shop will not solve the problem in any way.
it completely depends on individuals how they want to shape out their work hours. Even if you get all updates in one place, you'll still be spending equal amount of time responding, and following people's conversations. It's like saying if I have more money in one bank, I'd get more interest than keeping an equal amount of money in different banks.