New Research: Social Media Trends For Marketers In 2013

Social Media Examiner has just released its annual Social Media Marketing report. It reveals some interesting data about this year’s social media marketing trends.  I’d like to highlight some of the report’s most surprising and significant points. In a survey of 3,025 marketers, the study determined the following:

-The use of social bookmarking sites has plummeted from 26% of respondents in 2011 to just 10% in 2013. De.licio.us, DIGG, Friendfeed, etc., are rapidly falling in favor where marketers are concerned. (According to ebizMBA, the  most popular bookmarking sites are currently Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and StumbleUpon.)

–Forums (24% in 2011; 16% this year) and geo-location services such as Foursquare (17% in 2011; 11% this year) are also in decline.

–Respondents with more than 5 years experience are far more likely to use LinkedInthan the average respondent (92% vs. 70%).

–Marketers who spend more than 40 hours a week on social media are more heavily focused on Pinterest, Google, Instagram and YouTube than those who spending 6 hours a week or less on social media marketing.

–Biz-to-Consumer marketers have adopted Facebook  at a greater rate than Biz-to-Biz marketers; however, the opposite is true for LinkedIn. Although Facebook is the most important social platform for a strong majority (67%) of B2C marketers, Facebook and LinkedIn are tied among B2B marketers at 29% each.

–67% of marketers plan to increase their Twitter activities. This is a significant majority, but is down slightly from 69% last year and 73% in 2011. Younger marketers are much more likely to use photo sharing sites such as Instagram than their older counterparts.

-Here’s the biggest shocker, for me: the report says80% of marketers have no plans to use daily deal sites, such as Groupon or LivingSocial in the near future.

About the Data: Of the 3025 marketing participants in the study, 56% primarily target consumers and 44% target businesses. 72% of the respondents are 30-59. Females represented 62% of the survey sample. 57% are in the U.S., with the U.K. (9%) being the next-most heavily represented country.