Michael Stelzner put together an informative white paper called the Social Media Marketing Industry Report. In his reporting he surveyed nearly 900 marketers for their insights into Social Media. This white paper offers some great statistics on how marketers are using social media. A set back to the data is 70% of the people taking the survey were small business owners (2-100 employees) and I think this has a great impact the results. In my opinion, most of the information in the report is what we would expect to see, but it is really great that someone took the step to formulate it for us.

Below are a few Highlights from the report:

• The top benefit of social media marketing: The number-one advantage is generating exposure for the business, indicated 81% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic and building new business partnerships.
• The top social media tools: Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order.
• The number-one benefit of social media marketing is gaining the all-important eyeball. A significant 81% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. Improving traffic and growing lists was the second major benefit, followed by building new partnerships.
• Nearly all marketers spending 6+ hours a week on social media marketing found exceptionally positive results.
• Sole proprietors were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.
• Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who’ve been using social media for years, with nearly 80% reporting a rise (and most reporting a strong improvement).
• 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.

Top three questions marketers want answered: I have provided a quick and simple answer to the top three questions. I’d love to hear you comments and insights on these questions as well.

(1) What are the best tactics to use?
(A) Key tactics to successfully market yourself, product or company through the use of social media platforms.
- Branding
- Messaging
- Sharing
- Networking
- Promote
For more information take a look at 7 Social Media Tools to Successfully Market your Business

(2) How to do I measure the effectiveness of social media?
(A) The answer on how to measure the effectiveness of your social media really depends on your outcome, but a few quick simple ways to measure are listed below.
- Increased web traffic
- Increased followers
- Better search engine ranking
- WOM – Word of Mouth –How much chatter have you created?
- Email subscribers

(3) Where do I start?
(A) Check out the “Where to Begin”section in 7 Social Media Tools to Successfully Market your Business

I’d love to hear your comments on what you thought about the report and your key insights to the answers above. Have an amazing day!