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Michael Stelzner’s “2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” covers the broad topic of how the marketing industry is using social media to advertise and promote their businesses. The report covered a great deal of information such as the time spent on each site, the most used by peers, the benefits of using the sites and comparisons between businesses.

According to the report 97% of marketers are using social media. But they all seem to have similar questions about what is the most effective platform and how to better use social networking sites. Again something I found interesting was although 97% use social media sites only 26% or one in four actually believed they were getting a return on investment. An interesting comparison was the expertise on the sites. The beginners, of less than a year using the sites, 50% of them only go on it 5 or less hours a week. But those who have used it two years or longer spend 6 hours or more on the sites as well. So there is only roughly an hour difference between the beginners and the experienced. I believed that the more experienced would have used less time on the sites because they would be more aware of the tricks and such on the sites.

Something important to note for search engine optimization was that businesses who have been using social media for at least two years had a 62% rise for SEO ranking. This is important exposure for businesses because SEO is one of the best ways for a business to get notice by customers online.

One of the findings was that those spending 40 hours per week 63% of them were under forty; this makes sense because they were raise with the changing technology making it easier for them to learn quicker. Another interesting fact from the report was that those who spent 40 plus hours a week focused on Pinterest Google+, Instagram, YouTube, and blogging. Again one of the more interesting conclusions was that YouTube is the top area that marketers plan to utilize in the future. What I thought was not being fully utilized was the photo sharing sites. These sites are targeted towards a younger audience who are prime targets but only 38% of markers claim they will be increasing use on these sites. With the growing popularity I thought there would be more of a rise in use for businesses.

Overall the report concluded that there was a significant benefit for businesses to use social media sites. There were increased sales, increased exposure just within the past few years. The report even noted that half of marketers who spent at least a year on social media sites gain new partnerships for their businesses. They also noted that 63% of business found it helpful in gaining a loyal fan base. Something not surprising was the list of popular platforms used by marketers; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, and YouTube. I did notice that 69% of marketers plan on increasing YouTube activity which made it the top area marketers will invest in 2013. But 62% of marketers also wanted to learn more about blogging, which was surprising because I thought compared to all the other sites this would be the least timely or interesting for businesses.  

Stelzner, Michael A. "2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report."SocialMediaExaminer.com. Social Media Examiner, May 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.