7 in 10 Social Marketers Plan Increased SEO

Seven in 10 (71%) marketers who use social media plan to increase their use of search engine optimization (SEO) in the near future, according to the “2011 Social Media Marketing Report” from SocialMedia Examiner. Furthermore, only 1% plan to decrease their use of SEO and 8% have no plans to utilize it, with 20% intending to keep their SEO usage the same.

 

2 in 3 Social Marketers Will Increase Email

Nearly two in three social marketers (64%) plan on increasing their email marketing efforts in the near future. While the percentage planning to decrease email usage (3%) is slightly higher than that who plan to decrease SEO usage, fewer have no plans for email (5%) and more plan to keep email usage the same (27%).

6 in 10 Social Marketers Will Increase Event Marketing

A significant 60% of social marketers plan on increasing their event marketing and speaking engagements. Another 26% will keep the level of these activities the same, with 13% having no plans to utilize them and 2% planning a decrease.

In addition, SocialMedia Examiner analysis shows B2B marketers are significantly more likely (67%) to increase event marketing than B2C marketers (53%), and the self-employed (70%) and small business owners (65%) are significantly more likely to use event marketing than large corporations (43% to 38% range, depending on number of employees).

27% of Social Marketers Won’t Use Online Ads

Slightly less than half (46%) of social marketers plan on increasing their online advertising efforts, with 27% having no plans to utilize online advertising. Twenty-four percent will keep online advertising levels the same and 3% will decrease them.

Other SocialMedia Examiner data shows large businesses (1,000 or more employees) were most likely to
increase online advertising (53%), and B2C companies were more likely (50%) than B2B companies (42%) to increase their use of online ads.

4 in 10 Social Marketers Won’t Use Webinars

Four in 10 (42%) of social marketers have no plans to use webinars or teleseminars, with another 42% planning on increasing their use of these tools and 15% keeping their usage the same. SocialMedia Examiner says when this is contrasted with the large percentage that employ physical event marketing, it would seem that many businesses are not yet sold on the idea of virtual events.

Furthermore, survey data indicates small businesses were much more likely to increase their use of this marketing tactic. For example, 49% of the self-employed are planning an increase, compared to just 27% of businesses with 500 to 1,000 employees.

B2B companies were significantly more likely (52%) than B2C companies (33%) to use webinars or teleseminars.

Press Releases Only Traditional Media with High Planned Usage

Looking at several forms of traditional media used in marketing, the survey finds that only press releases have a high rate of planned usage, with a combined 80% of social marketers planning on increasing their press release usage or keeping it the same. This contrasts with combined increased/sustained usage rates for media including sponsorships (58%), direct mail (47%), print ads (45%), radio ads (27%), and TV ads (21%).

8 in 10 Social Marketers Use Email

The study also asked social media marketers what other types of marketing they were participating in. The top three included email marketing (81%), search engine optimization (68%) and event marketing (64%).

SocialMedia Examiner analysis indicates B2B marketers were significantly more likely to employ search engine optimization (71% B2B compared to 65% B2C) and event marketing (70% B2B compared to 58% B2C). Organizations with 1,000 or more employees were more likely to participate in event marketing (73%).

In addition, social media marketers with three or more years of experience were more likely to participate in search engine optimization (80%) and event marketing (79%) than the overall respondent group.