What’s your favourite social media platform for marketing?
As marketers, it is important to know upcoming social platforms. Just a few weeks ago, we reported on why CMOs should be in charge of the CEOs social media personal. When it comes to being social media savvy in the organisation, many in an organisation look towards their marketing teams to be ahead in the game.
But what do marketers really prefer? Well according to a recent Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Facebook has been found to still be the primary platform for marketers. Nearly two-thirds of marketers chose Facebook as their most important social platform. Following closely was LinkedIn which came in at 16%.
Twitter came in at 9% while Instagram came in at 7%. The platforms marketers were using the least include Pinterest at 2% and YouTube at 4%. Facebook’s usage statistic increased from 55% to 62%, while LinkedIn decreased from 18% to 16% in 2017. Meanwhile, Twitter dropped from 12% to 9% and Instagram rose from 4% to 7% in 2017, surpassing YouTube.
In terms of ad spend, 93% of social media marketers surveyed regularly use Facebook ads and 64% have plans on increasing their marketing activities on Facebook. Despite the importance placed on Facebook, the study revealed that 40% of marketers still don’t know if their Facebook marketing is working.
B2C marketers (45%) were more likely to agree that their Facebook marketing was working compared to B2B markers at 37%. 53% of marketers surveyed saw declines in their Facebook News Feed exposure due to Facebook algorithms. 42% revealed that they were unsure if there was a decline.
B2B vs B2C
And while B2B and B2C marketers do operate differently, there are some common grounds.
Facebook currently leads in the B2C space with 72% of marketers selecting it as its first choice. The same can be seen for B2B marketers. According to the study, for the first time, Facebook surpassed LinkedIn as the most used platform for B2B marketers, rising from 37% to 43% as LinkedIn dropped from 40% in 2016 to 37% in 2017.
B2C marketers are also 17% more focussed on Instagram compared to B2B marketers. They are also 8% more focussed on Facebook and 6% more focussed on Pinterest compared to B2B peers. Meanwhile, B2B marketers are 37% more focussed on LinkedIn and 10% more focussed on Twitter.
The Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing Industry Report surveyed 5,710 marketers from varying industries on a global level.