The recently released annual Social Media Marketing report by Social Media Examiner showed that 80% of marketers do not have any plans to use daily deal websites, like LivingSocial and Groupon, for their marketing efforts in the near future. The report also revealed some interesting findings about social media marketing trends in 2013.
Social Media Examiner polled 3,025 professionals and determined that the use of social bookmarking websites has decreased to 10% in 2013 from 26% back in 2011. A staggering 86% of marketers said that social media is essential for their business, up slightly from 83% in 2012. 92% of those who were surveyed with over five years experience in the sector, are more willing to use LinkedIn as a marketing tool, whereas only 70% of those with less than five years experience would do the same.
Business-to-consumer marketers have been heavily relying on Facebook, while business-to-business experts have been relying more on LinkedIn. Even though Facebook is the most used social platform for 67% of business-to-consumer marketers participating in the study, Facebook and LinkedIn are used equally by 29% of business-to-business marketers. When forced to choose one platform, 49% of marketers prefer Facebook, followed by LinkedIn with 16%.
Furthermore, 67% of marketers intend to boost their Twitter activity. However, Twitter has seen a slight decrease from 69% in 2012 and 73% in 2011. Younger social media marketers seem to be more likely to use photo sharing websites and applications such as Instagram, the survey showed.