Many of our clients ask us for advice about how to handle their social media. It seems that the landscape is forever changing and people are trying to figure out where they should be, how much time they should be spending, what they should be spending it on, and how they can best measure their success. Social Media Examiner has recently released its annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, which is a survey of over 2,800 marketers. Today, we’re going to pull some highlights out for you.

One of the biggest takeaways from the report is the incredibly high value that marketers place on social media. 92% of marketers say that it’s a priority for them. Marketers are also constantly searching for ways to get noticed online. But the report also reveals a few key shifts in thinking about social media that have happened over the past year. Knowing what they are might help you make some decisions about where you should focus your efforts in 2014.

Main takeaways

Facebook is losing its attraction. Marketers are becoming a little frustrated with Facebook these days. While it’s still ranked as the most important social network overall, 7% of marketers plan to use Facebook less this year. Only about 43% of the marketers surveyed think Facebook is working.

Google+ is not dead. Everyone has been talking about how Google+ is the place to be, and marketers are definitely interested in learning more about it too. 54% of marketers are using the network but 65% are interested in exploring it more. 61% plan on doing more with it this year.

B2B and B2C have different focuses. Business to business and business to consumer social media marketing are different. For example, B2C marketers are far more in favor of using Facebook than B2B marketers. In fact 68% of B2C marketers choose Facebook as their primary means of reaching out to their customers. YouTube was next, then Pinterest and Instagram.

For B2B marketers, LinkedIn was number one, with facebook, blogging and Twitter thrown into the mix as well.

Blogging is going to be big. Many marketers (68% to be exact) reported that blogging is at the top of their priorities list. It’s been a few years since blogging has been this hot, but it’s coming back in a big way. 

Visual content is on the rise. Visual assets like original images and infographics are coming up at the top of the list of things that marketers are going to focus on for 2014. 68% say that they want to create more visual assets. Many in that same group also say that video content will also be an area of interest.

Podcasting is growing. Right now only 6% of marketers are involved in podcasting. That number is expected to grow as 21% say they plan on doing more podcasting this year. 28% of marketers want to learn more about it.

These are only a few of the major findings from the survey. We encourage you to read it yourself and check out the very well done and clearly designed charts that help visualize some interesting findings. We hope this whet your appetite!