Business.com released some findings from a study of about 3,000 North American business professionals to identify trends in social media use. The company calls it the largest study to date of social media use by business professionals.
"We are constantly analyzing trends to determine exactly what tools business professionals leverage most for purchasing," said Ben Hanna, Ph.D., vice president, marketing, Business.com. "This survey was a way for us to benchmark where businesses, and business people, are finding value in social media in order to further enhance our site offerings and better serve our users."
Findings from the study include:
- Webinars and podcasts are used by 69% of those who turn to social media channels for business information.
- Facebook is the dominant social network on which consumer-focused companies maintain one or more profiles, cited by 83% of respondents versus 45% for Twitter. Business-to-business (B2B) companies, however, maintain a presence on both platforms with 77% maintaining a profile on Facebook and 73% on Twitter.
- Among respondents using social media for business purposes in their day-to-day jobs, 62% visit company or brand profiles on social networking sites and 55% search for business information on these sites.
- Consultants and marketing communications professionals are the most active users of social media as a resource for business information, particularly in micro (<10 employees) and small businesses (10-99 employees). IT professionals have the lowest participation rate.
- Both companies and employees are scaling a massive learning curve with social media.
- The average company in this study was planning, developing or running seven different social media initiatives; 65% of respondents staffing those initiatives, and 71% of companies themselves, have less than two years of experience with social media for business.
- Building brand awareness and brand reputation are two of the top social media success metrics, but nearly two-thirds of companies focused on these metrics have little to no insight into performance via standard or easily accessible reports.
The survey was conducted online from August 11 to September 4, 2009.
Don't Let Social Media Marketing Work Against You Very Few Small Business Owners Say Social Media "A Must"Making Social Media Work for Your BusinessBuilding Your Brand Through Social MediaSocial Media Marketing Takes TimeIs the Social Media Profile Replacing the Website? Small Businesses' Favorite Social Media ToolsSurvey Indicates Social Meida EffectivenessSocial Media Becoming More Important To Small Businesses Older People Flocking to Facebook, Other Social Networks
 | |||
| Do you have a business site? Submit your business related site FREE! | |||
| |||
Submit Your Article
Advertise
Newsletter
Comments
The use of social media is
Complete study available on Business.com site
RE: Complete study
It can be tricky...
I've been using social media to market my safety and secuity web site for some time now. It's a bit tricky and hard to track conversions but it's free and helps you stay in touch with customers so I'd say it's worth the time and trouble to figure out.
Agree social media marketing can be tricky
Yes, social media marketing can definitely be tricky - the most difficult parts are identifying the best opportunities to reach your target customer through social media and then separating fact from habit/fiction when you pursue social media initiatives.
If you're marketing your safety and security solutions to small businesses, you might also be interested in the small business social media version of our report - "Engaging Small Business Decision Makers Through Social Media". You can download it from http://www.business.com/info/engaging-small-business-through-social-media.
Post new comment