report1The Social Media Examiner surveyed more than 3,800 marketers with the goal of understanding how they are using social media to grow and promote their businesses.

The key findings of his Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012 comprise:

  • Marketers still place high value on social media: A significant 83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business;
  • Measurement and targeting are top areas marketers want to master: 40% of all social media marketers want to know how to measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media and find customers and prospects;
  • Video marketing holds the top spot for future plans: A significant 76% of  marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making  it the top area marketers will invest in for 2012;
  • Marketers seek to learn more about Google+: While only 40% of marketers are using Google+, 70% of marketers want to learn more about it and 67% plan on  increasing Google+ activities;
  • Top three benefits of social media marketing: The number-one benefit of  social media marketing is generating more business exposure (reported 85% of  marketers), followed by increasing traffic (69%) and providing marketplace  insight (65%);
  • Top five social media networks/tools for marketers: Facebook, Twitter,  LinkedIn, blogs and YouTube were the top five social media tools used by  marketers, in that order;
  • Social media marketing still takes a lot of time: The majority of marketers  (59%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and a third (33%)  invest 11 or more hours weekly;

  • Social media outsourcing underutilized: Only 30% of businesses are  outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing, only a slight increase  from 28% in 2011.

Further we don’t want to deprive you of knowing the top 10 social media questions marketers wanted to have answered. Actually, they can be summarized with the following keywords: measure, target, engage, sell, time, strategy, tactics, tools, use and selection—in that order.

Take a look at the excellent questions asked, as they are probably of interest to you, too:

#1: MEASURE: How do I measure the effect of social media marketing on my business?

The number-one question marketers want answered is how to track the ROI of social media. For the past three years running, this question has been number one.

#2: TARGET: How do I find my target audience with social media?

Marketers want to know how to locate prospective customers via social media.

#3: ENGAGE: What are the best ways to engage my audience?

Many marketers want to understand how to cultivate loyal fans.

#4: SELL: How do I sell with social media?

Many marketers want to know how to monetize their social media activities.

#5: TIME: How should I best use my time to maximize my social media results?

Marketers are still interested in how to manage the time required to conduct social

media marketing.

#6: STRATEGY: How do I create a social media strategy?

A significant number of marketers are seeking ways to use social media to strategically support business objectives.

 #7: TACTICS: What social media tactics are the most effective?

Marketers are looking for proven tactics to speed them along their social media paths.

 #8: TOOLS: What are the best social media management tools?

With so many social media platforms and potential campaigns and objectives, many marketers are looking for tools to manage their efforts.

 #9: USE: How do I use the different social media platforms?

Marketers want to understand how to use and optimize their experiences with major social media platforms.

 #10: SELECTION: How do I select the right social platform for my business?

Marketers are trying to understand the advantages of each social platform and how to select the right one(s) for their business.

Around 40% of marketers indicated that determining how to measure social media results and how to find customers or prospects were the top social media marketing questions they want to have answered and the Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012 definitely has been focused to find the answers.

The full report is available for download at http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report/

By MediaBUZZ