Social Media Marketing Report

Title: Social Media Marketing Report

1. Executive Summary

The social media marketing report is an analysis that consists of three parts: sector structure, customer behaviour and current issues.
The first part the is the sector structure, in which the research was done to find out the social media marketing concept, social media marketing benefits and the top social media tools used by marketers. This part presents the most important key words, numbers and figures which identifies and supports the analysed social media marketing areas mentioned before.
The second part is the consumer behaviour, which presents essential statistics about marketers ' view to social media marketing, the most popular social media platforms used by businesses, also, consumers ' choice of social media platforms and their demographics. These areas are covered using various statistics ' together with analytical explanations.
The last part, is the current trends part, which analysis the current trends and issues of the social media marketing referring to the previous trends and issues found by users. Moreover, in this part the analytical prediction for the future market trends are made.
This work references to social media and social media marketing and online advertising books, online sources and personal experience about the social media marketing.

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2. Sector Structure

Social media – a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content, (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), marketing – process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Therefore, social media marketing concept can be described as – the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.

The emergence of Web 2.0 brought a different concept of the internet. The two-way communication created social media tools which made an easy usage and access for consumers to create, publish and share content, to vote on them, and to recommend things to others. The collaborative technologies that now define contemporary marketplaces offer a viable approach to driving changes in deeper business processes across a wide range of applications (Evans and McKee, 2010).
Social media marketing platforms usually creates content which attracts users and encourages them to share it with their social networks, which results in interaction between consumers and brands. In that way, message spreads from either business to user or (and) from user to user as a third-party source. Therefore, the marketing becomes a word-of-mouth and it works as a trusted source – earned media rather then paid media. Moreover, social media marketing can work to improve customer service, strengthen brand 's personality, differentiate a brand from its competitors.
“Social media inherently revolves around the passions, lifestyles, and causes – the higher calling (business model)1 that defines larger social objects to which participants relate” (Evans and McKee, 2010 p58).

1. Higher calling business model
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According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012, the top two benefits of social media marketing are increasing exposure and increasing traffic. A significant 85% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. Increasing traffic was the second major benefit, with 69% reporting positive.
Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012

Social media comes in many forms; the most popular ones: blogs, micro blogs (Twitter), social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn), media-sharing sites (YouTube, Flickr), social bookmarking and voting sites (Digg, Reddit), review sites (Yelp), forums and virtual words (Second Life). Through these social media forms marketing incorporates as a perfect tool to attract audiences ' attention, create brand awareness and get more business (The social media marketing book by Dan Zarrella).

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3. Consumer Behaviour

The Marketers Behaviour

It is crucial for any business to understand its demographics – the targeting market, thus the social media outlets used to market products and services online.
In order to do that, it is needed to know where the target audience is. Moreover, it is must to know if the target audience would even respond to efforts when it comes to social media marketing.
According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012, the study surveyed over 3,800 marketers with the goal of understanding how they are using social media to grow and promote their businesses.
A significant 83% of marketers said that social media was important to their businesses. This is a drop from 2011 where 90% thought social media was important (62% strongly agreed in 2011). The solo business owner was more likely to strongly agree (54%) with this statement (Stelzner, 2012). Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012

This survey shows that social media marketing is very important to solo businesses ' owners, because through social media platforms marketers can easily reach huge audiences and they are relatively inexpensive comparing to traditional media platforms.

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The overwhelming majority (94%) indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes (Stelzner, 2012).
Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2012

This is an incredibly large number which shows the importance of the social media for businesses. The other 6% of businesses that does not use social media for marketing purposes, are loosing on audience and brand recognition through the word-of-mouth.

In regards of what social media platforms marketers are using, the 65% of the world 's top companies have an active Twitter profile. The most popular social networking tool for marketing is Facebook – being used by 92%, followed by Twitter (84%), LinkedIn (71%) and blogs (68%) (Stelzner, 2012).

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Consumer Behaviour
When it comes to consumer respond to the social media marketing, survey gives interesting numbers: 20% would purchase within social media site, 49% Twitter users regularly search for products on Twitter, 60% are willing to post about products/services in Facebook if they get a deal or discount.
These figures shows that consumers ' behaviour are changing – the social media platforms has become a marketplace which audience is willing to trust.
It is essential to know what is your audience, to get the most out of marketing campaigns. Therefore, the Google Ad Planner Tool provided data of consumer gender, age, age and volume, education, income and engagement in June 2010, which is important to look at.

The first chart represents gender.
This chart shows that overall more male than female are social media platform users. However, some social media platforms are used more by females rather than males.
Google Ad Planner Tool 2010

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The second chart shows age trends within six different social media platforms.
Age is a great indicator when choosing your advertising niche. Each sector/product/service will attract to different age groups.
Comparing each social platform against the average, you can see that you tube leads the way for teenagers and young twenties. Linked-in beats the average for the older generation.
YouTube is very popular for the 18-24 age group closely followed by Myspace.
The graph above ignores the actual volume of unique users and presents the percentage split for each social platform. Including the volume presents a very different landscape.
Google Ad Planner Tool 2010 Youtube and Facebook are the dominating platform for all age groups. Youtube leading the way for the younger audience with Facebook taking the lead for everyone over 25 years old.

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The last chart shows engagement statistics.
From the demographic data, we now have insight into “who” is using each platform. The next step is to understand “how” they use each platform.
Google Ad Planner Tool 2010

It is obvious from the chart that Facebook is by far the most engaging. Their audience will return frequently. They will also spend a long time on the site.

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4. Current Issues

Technologies are changing every day, social media platforms move accordingly. Consumers and marketers change accordingly to technology, trends and demand. They are all connected in one social circle. Therefore, it is important to know and understand how the future will change, especially for marketers it is essential to figure it out the future trends and issues to get the best out of the social media platforms.
In the last year, the largest social media platform was Facebook with one billion users in October 2012. Youtube also plays a huge role in social media, it has an average one billion unique visitors each month. Twitter is behind with around half a billion users. These figures grow with every year. It only shows the importance for a marketer to understand all possible benefits that comes form social media platforms and how to use those platforms in the best possible way.

The current demand and trends of social media marketing have not changed much within last years – they are still very popular and number of users only grow.
However, the new social media platforms were introduced – such as Instagram and LinkedIn. Instagram became a photo sharing based social media marketing platform. It is easy and quick to take a photo, which goes to a social media platform instantly.
Also, a demand for a serious, business based social media platform has risen, where professional can contact and communicate. LinkedIn became a such social media platform.

With a growing number of social media members, some issues has risen, such as demand for social media platforms to create customization options, do more of visualization. Social media platforms have to keep up with rising demand, otherwise, the competition from new platforms can occur. Moreover, social media marketing sector appears to have issues with not understanding of social media platform, lack of tracking and non-professionals working with social media platforms.

Considering fast-growing market and technology, the future for social media marketing is very promising. With social media platforms developing and introducing new features, users are getting more knowledgeable, also more attracted to them. Therefore, marketers will have to put much more work and effort into this sector to figure it out, how to get the best out of marketing on social media platform. As long as it will be demand for social media, marketers will follow the consumers on every possible social media platform. It is even possible that social media platforms will start charging brands to promote themselves on social media platforms, as the they have an absolute attention of the audience. The prediction for the future, would be that social medial will only grow and social media manager 's position will be in every active business.
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5. Summary

The social media marketing report is an analysis made to understand the concept of the social media marketing, what is involved in it, how market and consumers respond to it and what the future holds for the market.
After analysing the all three parts, the suggestion for the future research areas is very important to make. Therefore, the suggested research area for social media marketing is to follow consumer trends rather than marketers ', because of changing technology and consumerism, it is crucial to understand what the next Facebook will be. Internet being resourcelessness in terms of social media platform creation, trends and consumers must be analysed constantly.

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6. References & Bibliography

Dan Zarella, 2010. The social media marketing book. Canada: O 'Reilly Media, Inc.

Dave Evans and Jake McKee, 2010. Social media marketing, the next generation of business engagement. Canada: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael, 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Vol. 53, Issue 1 (page 61).

Philip Kotler and Kenin Lane Keller, 2012. Marketing Management. 14th ed. Global Edition: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Michael A. Stelzner, 2012. Social media marketing industry report.
Tracy L Tuten, 2008. Advertising 2. 0– Social Media Marketing in a Web 2. 0 World. United States: Greenwood Publishing Group.

References: & Bibliography Dan Zarella, 2010. The social media marketing book. Canada: O 'Reilly Media, Inc. Dave Evans and Jake McKee, 2010. Social media marketing, the next generation of business engagement. Canada: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael, 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Vol. 53, Issue 1 (page 61). Philip Kotler and Kenin Lane Keller, 2012. Marketing Management. 14th ed. Global Edition: Pearson Prentice Hall. Michael A. Stelzner, 2012. Social media marketing industry report. Tracy L Tuten, 2008. Advertising 2. 0– Social Media Marketing in a Web 2. 0 World. United States: Greenwood Publishing Group.