2009 Social Marketing Industry Report

I came across the following Research Report conducted across more than 800 marketers focused on their use of Social Marketing. below is a link to the report. It has some interesting findings and highlights some key areas of interest.

http://marketingwhitepapers.s3.amazonaws.com/smss09/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport.pdf

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INDUSTRY RE PORT

B Y M I C H A E L A . S T E L Z N E R

How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow their Businesses

MA R C H 2 0 0 9

Michael did a nice job of framing the conversation. Here are a few interesting findings:

Increased Exposure:

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.

Rise in Search Engine Rankings– An unexpected benefit was a rise in search engine rankings reported by more than half of the participants. As the search engine rankings improve, so will business exposure, lead generation efforts and a reduction in overall marketing expenses. About one in two marketers found social media generated qualified leads. However, only slightly more than one in three said social media marketing helped close business.

Some questions that naturally emerge from the above chart might include, “Is there a way to improve the likelihood of achieving these benefits by investing more time in social media?” and “Are those marketers who’ve been doing social media marketing for years gaining even better results?”