Executive summaryThis study surveyed over 3,800 marketers with the goal of understanding how they areusing social media to grow and promote their businesses..The time commitment: We examine the weekly hours marketers invest in theirsocial media efforts. This analysis will be helpful for marketers just gettingstarted or those seeking support staff.The benefits of social media marketing: This rather beefy section reveals allthe major advantages marketers are achieving with their social media efforts. Wealso look at how time invested, business size and experience affect the results.Commonly used social media services: Discover which tools marketers areusing and how their usage is changing this year. We also examine which toolsexperienced marketers are using.Social media sites people want to learn more about: In this section, weexamine the up-and-coming tools (such as Google+ and photo-sharing siteslike Pinterest) that marketers are most interested in learning about.Other analysis: We also examine social media outsourcing and how marketersplan on using other forms of marketing. In addition, we take a look at howbusiness-to-business (B2B) companies differ from business-to-consumer (B2C)companies and whether the size of a business has any bearing on results. Wealso highlight significant changes since our 2011 study..

Major findingsHere's a quick summary of our primary findings:Marketers still place high value on social media: Measurement and targeting are top areas marketers want to master: Video marketing holds the top spot for future plans: Marketers seek to learn more about Google+: Top five social media networks/tools for marketers: Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, blogs and YouTube were the top five social media tools used bymarketers, in that order.Social media marketing still takes a lot of time: The majority of marketers(59%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and a third (33%)invest 11 or more hours weekly.Social media outsourcing underutilized: Only 30% of businesses areoutsourcing some portion of their social media marketing, only a slight increasefrom 28% in 2011.

OBJECTIVE1.To study a social media market2.To study the tools used by social media marketing.3.To study a benefit of Social media marketing.

Limitations:To understand overall social media marketing in the period of 60 dys is not enough.The study is also limited to understand the techniques and tools used for social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing What is Social Media Marketing? Social Media Marketing makes use of social media sites to raise visibility on the Internet and to promote products and services. Social media sites are useful for building social (and business) networks, and for exchanging ideas and knowledge. Social media networking is part of a trend known as Web 2.0, which refers to changes in the way users and software developers use the Web. It is a more collaborative use of the Web that enhances creativity and knowledge exchange. It is a more interactive and user-driven way to help users participate and collaborate over the Web through open applications and services. It is critical, therefore, that content is accessible to the user; the user should be able to create, share, remix, and repurpose content. Technologies that are accessible and affordable like Ajax (a method of building interactive applications for the Web that processes user requests immediately) and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) support Web 2.0 principles such as user empowerment. Social Media Marketing uses podcasts, wikis, blogs, folksonomies, online videos, photo sharing, news sharing, message boards, and posts on social networking sites to reach a large or targeted audience.Use of social media marketing

Social media is important for businessA 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.

Experience with social media marketingWe asked participants to rate theirexperience using social media marketing B2B marketers have been using social media longer (18.3% reported 3 years or more) thantheir B2C counterparts (14% indicated 3years or longer).

Weekly time commitment for socialmedia marketing

A significant 59% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more and 33% for11 or more hours weekly. It's interesting to note that nearly 15% of marketers spendmore than 20 hours each week on social media.Those with more years of social media experience spend more time each weekconducting social media activities. For example, 77% of people with 3 or more yearsof experience commit more than 6 hours weekly to social media marketing. And 24.5%of this crowd are spending 20 hours or more each week.However, more experienced social media users are spending less time with social mediacompared to our 2011 findings. Only half of marketers with more than 3 yearsexperience are spending 10 or more hours each week on social media, down from 63%in 2011.The experience factorThere's a direct relationship betweenhow long marketers have been usingsocial media and their weekly timecommitment. More experience meansmore time spent on social mediamarketing.For people just beginning with socialmedia, 51% spend 1 to 5 hours per week.However, for folks who have been doing this for 6 months or longer, most 6 hours or more per week on socialmedia activities. How the time commitment varies with business sizeThis chart shows how different-sized businesses invest their time with social media activities

Benefits of social media marketing

Commonly used social media tools

How will marketers change their futuresocial media activities?

Marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube/video (76%), Facebook (72%), Twitter(69%), blogs (68%), Google+ (67%) and LinkedIn (66%) in that order. A significant 75%said they have no plans to utilize daily deals or will reduce their efforts. Fifty-sevenpercent have no plans to utilize geo-location. Here is a breakdown by social mediachannel:#1: YouTube/VideoFor the second year in a row,YouTube/video is the top areawhere marketers plan onincreasing their social mediaefforts.A significant 76% of marketers planon increasing their YouTubeand/or video marketing. This isslightly down from 2011 (77%).Businesses with 26-999 employeesindicated this is a key growth area,with at least 80% respondingaffirmatively. Younger marketers(77% of those aged 20-49) are alsomore likely to increase their videoproduction than older marketers(68% of those aged 60+).

#2: FacebookFacebook is clearly a top choice.Ninety-two percent of marketersare using Facebook and 72% planon increasing their activities. Lessthan 4% of marketers surveyed donot plan to utilize Facebook.Second only to YouTube/video,Facebook is an area wheremarketers feel they can achievesubstantial results.Seventy-six percent of B2C plan onincreasing Facebook efforts.Seventy-seven percent of small- tomid-sized businesses (26-499employees) will also increase theirFacebook activities. Facebook isalso the top focus for people justgetting started with social mediamarketing (79%).Additionally, small- to mid-sizedcompanies with 26-499 employeesare more likely to increase theirFacebook use (77%) than small(70%) or large (69%) organizations

#3: TwitterA majority of marketers (69%) willincrease their activities on Twitter,slightly down from 73% in 2011.Enterprise-level businesses andsmall businesses of 25-99employees are most likely toincrease their activities on Twitter,with 75% reporting affirmatively.Of marketers working 21 hours ormore per week with social media,as many as 80% say they willincrease their use of Twitter in2012.Marketers aged 20-29 (78%) are farmore likely than their peers (68%)to increase their use of Twitter

#4: BlogsBlogs remain a strong area of focusfor social media marketers, with68% indicating they'll increase theirblogging activities.The self-employed are more likelyto step up their blogging, with 76%reporting increased activity (downfrom 79% in 2011).Of those who work 11 hours aweek or more with social media, atleast 73% of marketers plan toincrease their blogging.In 2010, 81% of marketers plannedon increasing their blogging and75% said the same in 2011.

#5: Google+Newcomer Google+ is on the radarfor many marketers. Mostbusinesses (67%) plan onincreasing their Google+ activities,while more than 1 in 5 have noplans to use Google+.Of those putting at least 11 hoursper week into social mediamarketing, at least 73% plan toincrease their use of Google+.Ninety-two percent of marketersworking 30-35 hours a week with social media affirmed this.Male marketers (70%) are morelikely to increase their Google+ usethan female marketers (64.5%).#6: LinkedInAs expected, B2B companies aresignificantly more likely to plan onincreasing their use of LinkedIn(76% of B2B versus 55% of B2C).Both are increases from 2011levels (71% of B2B and 51% of B2C).Social media newcomers (72%)were more likely to increase theiruse of LinkedIn. Enterprise-levelbusinesses were least likely toincrease their use (59%). #7: Photo Sharing SitesThirty-eight percent of marketersplanned to increase their use ofsites like Pinterest, Instagram andFlickr.These numbers rise significantlyfor those working 11 hours ormore with social media, 50% ormore for most of those putting in21 hours or more.Female marketers (40%) are alsomore likely to increase their usethan male marketers (35%).

Overview of Internet Marketing Strategies While social media marketing (or social media optimization) is the focus of this booklet, it is important to consider a range of Internet marketing strategies as described below: Type of Internet Marketing Strategy Description

Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) involves designing, writing, and coding a website in a way that helps to improve the volume and quality of traffic to your website from search engines via a high page rank in the natural search results (in contrast to paid advertisements posted with the search engine results). Generally, the earlier a website shows up in the search results, the more users will visit that site. Search Engine Optimization can involve a number of techniques to increase website traffic (e.g. article submissions to other websites that contain your businesss website address, link swaps, etc.). For more information see the booklet entitled Increasing Traffic to Your Website Through Search Engine Optimization Techniques.

Affiliate Marketing A business contracts with other individuals or companies (affiliates) who market the companys products for a commission (on sales or leads). Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods because affiliates can use a variety of marketing strategies. Those methods include SEO, paid search engine marketing, email marketing and display advertising. A common type of affiliate marketing occurs where a Web advertiser or merchant recruits webmasters to place the merchants banner ads or buttons on their own Website. Webmasters will receive a referral fee or commission from sales when the customer has clicked the affiliate link.

Online Display Advertising Use of the Internet as an advertising medium where paid promotional messages appear on other websites and search engine results pages. These promotional messages are paid for by the businesses or are exchanged between websites. For more information see the booklet entitled Successful Online Display Advertising.