Social Media Marketers' Platform Use [CHART]

Facebook remains the most used social media platform among marketers again this year, but Instagram is gaining in popularity as companies plan to increase their activity on the platform, per the latest annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner, based on a survey of more than 4,800 participants from around the globe.

Before continuing, it’s worth noting that the majority (60%) of respondents are from small businesses (1-10 employees), so this report is likely not a reflection of the activities of larger enterprise businesses.

One indicator of marketers shifting away from Facebook and towards Instagram is that for the first time in this report, Instagram (72%) jumped ahead of Facebook (69%) as the platform that the most marketers want to learn more about.

Facebook’s decline in interest among marketers comes amid data illustrating decreasing consumer usage of Facebook along with privacy concerns regarding Zuckerberg’s original social network.

Respondents are still finding that social media marketing – in particularly Facebook – has its benefits, despite the fact that algorithm changes to Facebook have made publisher and brand pages less visible. Indeed, more marketers are reporting benefits this year than last.

The vast majority (93%) of respondents reported that their business benefited from increased exposure by using social media (up from 87% last year), while 87% saw increased traffic (up from 78%).

Secondary benefits also experienced some improvement this year. More respondents this year (57%) than last (48%) reported enjoying thought leadership exposure through social media, for example.

But more notable is the number of businesses which saw increased sales through social media efforts. Last year a little more than half (53%) of businesses experienced increased sales, compared to 72% this year. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.