From March 21st through May 18th this year, SEOmoz conducted their annual industry survey specifically aiming at SEO, internet marketing, and the marketing profession in 2012. Out of the 6,491 respondents (independent consultants, agency SEOs, in-house marketers), mainly from English-speaking countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, reveals how marketers are leveraging social media for their businesses.
Interesting data taken from this analysis states 96% of all marketers claim their teams are involved with content creation, and that social media, SEO, content, and analysis lead the way as the top growth areas in internet marketing.
The Results Are In
The data below—put together in a nice n’ tidy infographic by the lovely team at HubSpot—highlights key areas generated by this survey.
A notable stat, and the first stat on the graphic, reveals that 44.4% of respondents self-professed either “advanced” or “expert” social media ability. The evidence we can draw from this is that marketers are feeling more comfortable with using what was once referred to as a new and unknown technology.
Unsurprisingly Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social networks, although Google+ (yeah, finally!) ranks third. One theory behind this—suggested by Anum Hussain—is the high impact Google+ has on SEO.
What is surprising though is that 74.1% of marketers use LinkedIn Company Pages for branding. Why is this surprising? For those of you like me know, if you are a regular LinkedIn Company Pages user, it doesn’t offer a lot/many options in terms of branding. Sure you can add a logo and update your status, but it’s nothing compared to Facebook or Pinterest who offer advanced branding capabilities.
Finally, the survey revealed that 60.2% of marketers are looking for analysis and analytic options in their social management tools. The reason for this? Pretty obvious really. When marketers are communicating their messages online they want to know if their efforts are reaching the end goal: revenue.
Are you leveraging social media for your business? If not, then you should be! Contact us today!
