Facebook is the most used social network by businesses for marketing purposes, and 67% of companies plan to further increase their Facebook marketing activities this year, according to recent data from Social Media Examiner.
The 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report was based on data from a survey conducted in January of 5,086 marketers. Some 65% of survey participants focus primarily on attracting consumers (B2C) and the other 35% primarily target businesses (B2B).
Below, key findings from the report.
Top Social Networks
Some 96% of B2C respondents say their business uses Facebook as a marketing tool, and 88% of B2B respondents say the same.
YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest are more popular with B2C marketers; LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and SlideShare are more popular with B2B marketers.
Some 66% of B2C marketers say Facebook is the most important social network for their business. LinkedIn ranks as the top network for B2B marketers, with 40% saying it is the most important platform.
Paid Channels
The most used paid media channel by respondents is Facebook ads (87% use), followed by Google ads (39%) and Twitter ads (18%).
Content Types
Visual content such as images/graphics is the most used content type by marketers on social media (74% say they use), followed by blog posts (68%).
Marketers rank blog posts as the top content type they share on social media (38% cite as most important). However, that's down from the 45% who ranked blogging as most important in 2015.
About the research: The 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report was based on data from a survey conducted in January of 5,086 marketers.
