Blogging is on top again according to the results of the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner.
The annual survey of social media marketing professionals found that businesses continue to invest more in social media marketing each year, but the way that money is invested is changing. While Facebook is still the dominant social media marketing focus for businesses, it’s actually on the decline in terms of importance and investments. On the other hand, blogging and podcasting are on an upswing.
Following are some of the most interesting highlights from the study for content publishers:
Most Expectations
Blogging stole the top spot from YouTube in this year’s report with 68% of social media marketers planning to increase investments in blogging in 2014. Furthermore, social media marketers are prioritizing mobile with 43% already having mobile optimized blogs, which is nearly double the number with mobile optimized blogs in 2013 (28%).
Interestingly, the report reveals that business-to-business marketers are ahead of the pack in terms of mobile-optimization. Of the B2B marketers who responded to the survey, 50% had mobile-optimized blogs versus 38% for B2C marketers.
Most Interest
Marketers are most interested in Google+. While 54% of social media marketers are already using Google+, 65% want to learn more about it. It’s a confusing piece of the social media puzzle that marketers don’t fully understand yet.
Most Promise
At the time the survey was conducted, only 6% of respondents were using podcasting, but that is going to change—a lot. In 2014, 21% of social media marketers plan to increase their investments in podcasting. However, that growth might be slow to actually happen, because 28% of marketers don’t yet fully understand podcasting and want to learn more about it.
Most Important
The most important social network for social media marketers was identified as Facebook by 54% of the survey respondents followed by LinkedIn, which was identified by 17% of the respondents. However, things aren’t perfect for Facebook. In 2013, social media marketers ranked Facebook in second place in terms of their investments, but it dropped to fifth place in the 2014 study with 7% of marketers planning to decrease their investments in Facebook.
Furthermore, the success of Facebook marketing is questionable according to respondents to the Social Media Examiner survey. Two out of three social media marketers (66%) do not believe that their Facebook marketing investments have been effective.
Most Priority
When it comes to content, original rules with 58% of social media marketers believing that original written content is the most important form of content. Nearly all respondents to the survey (94%) already use original written content in their social media marketing initiatives, and 81% plan to increase their use of it in 2014. Respondents ranked original visual content such as infographics in second place (19%) followed by original videos (12%).
How does the data compare to how you’re leveraging social media marketing to promote your Authoritative Content?
Image: Alexander Baxenavis licensed CC BY 2.0