2019 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INDUSTRY REPORT How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses MAY 2019 BY MICHAEL A. STELZNER Copyright 2019, Social Media Examiner 2019 SOCIAL MEDIA Copyright 2019, Social Media ExaminerLetter from the author Hello, fellow marketer! Welcome to our 11 thannual report! This is the longest- running social media marketing study. And yes, social media marketing is still changing. This 46-page report contains easy-to-digest insights into how marketers are currently using social media and their future plans. If you're in charge of marketing your business, you'll want to closely examine the 60+ charts on the following pages. I'll reveal the “not-so-obvious“ ndings in this data-rich content. The report covers all of the major social platforms, organic and paid activities, content marketing, and much more. More than 4,800 of your fellow marketers provided the kinds of insights you won't nd elsewhere. I hope you enjoy it! If you nd value in this report, please let your peers know about it. You can nd the original page for the report here: socialmediaexaminer/report2019/ All my best! Michael A. Stelzner Founder, Social Media Examiner Host, Social Media Marketing podcast 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 2 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Table of contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 . MAJOR FINDINGS 5 . TOP QUESTIONS FACED BY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETERS 6 . BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 7 . COMMONLY USED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS 11 . THE MOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL PLATFORM FOR MARKETERS IS. 15 . THE RISE AND FALL OF SOCIAL PLATFORMS 17 . ORGANIC SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING 18 . SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS MARKETERS WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT 26 . VIDEO CHANNELS USED BY MARKETERS 27 . AVERAGE VIDEO LENGTH 28 . VIDEO ORIENTATION 29 . LIVE VIDEO USE 30 . AVERAGE LIVE VIDEO LENGTH 31 . HOW WILL MARKETERS CHANGE THEIR FUTURE VIDEO MARKETING ACTIVITIES? 32 . VIDEO PLATFORMS MARKETERS WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT 34 . SOCIAL MEDIA ADS 35 . HOW WILL MARKETERS CHANGE THEIR FUTURE SOCIAL MEDIA AD ACTIVITIES? 36 . SOCIAL MEDIA AD PLATFORMS MARKETERS WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT 38 . MEASURING ROI OF ORGANIC SOCIAL ACTIVITIES 39 . FACEBOOK ANALYTICS INSIGHT 40 . GOOGLE ANALYTICS INSIGHT 41 . SURVEY PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS 42 . ABOUT MICHAEL A. STELZNER 46 . 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 3 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Executive summary This study surveyed more than 4,800 marketers with the goal of understanding how they're using social media to grow and promote their businesses. On the following pages, you'll discover: The top social media questions marketers want answered: We reveal the big questions today's marketing pros want answered. ! The benets of social media marketing: This section of our study reveals all of the major advantages marketers are achieving with their social media e“orts. We also look at how years of experience a“ect the results.! Most-used social media platforms: Discover which platforms marketers are using now and how their usage will change over the next 12 months. We also examine which platforms experienced marketers are using and the most important platforms for marketers. ! Organic social media posting: We explore how marketers plan on changing their future organic activities by platform.! Video marketing: We reveal the video channels most popular with marketers, the length and orientation of their videos, their use of live video, and how they plan on changing their video marketing over the next 12 months.! Paid social media: We reveal the social advertising platforms marketers are using, how their use of ads has changed in the last year, and which ad platforms they plan to focus on in the next 12 months. ! Other analyses: We examine marketers' ability to calculate return on investment (ROI) and their interest in analytics. In addition, we take a look at how business- to-business (B2B) companies di“er from business-to-consumer (B2C) companies. We also highlight signicant changes since our 2018 study. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 4 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Major ndings Here's a quick summary of some of our more interesting ndings: Facebook declining: There's a clear indication that marketers are diversifying away from Facebook. For the rst time in the last 5 years, Facebook lost share as the most important platform for marketers, dropping from 67% in 2018 to 61% in 2019. One in ten marketers indicated they'll be decreasing their organic marketing on Facebook. Only 51% of marketers plan on increasing their Facebook organic activities, down from 62% in 2018.! Interest in Messenger bots declining: Messenger bots haven't caught on with marketers. Only 14% of marketers are using bots (down from 15% in 2018). Only 32% of marketers plan on increasing their bot activities, down from 39% in 2018. Interest in learning more about Messenger bots dropped to 45% from 70% in 2018.! Instagram is hot: Seventy-three percent of marketers are using Instagram, up from 66% in 2018. It's the second most important social platform for marketing (behind Facebook) and surpassed LinkedIn for the rst time. A signicant 69% of marketers plan on increasing their Instagram organic activities over the next 12 months. Instagram is the number-one platform marketers want to learn more about, surpassing Facebook for the rst time. Engagement matters most: For the rst time in our study, how to achieve better engagement is the top question marketers want answered. This is likely in reaction to Facebook news feed changes made in early 2018 that incentivize meaningful social interactions. YouTube interest is high: A signicant 71% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube video and 75% want to learn more about marketing on the platform. YouTube is the number-one video channel, used by 57% of marketers.! Facebook dominance still strong: A very signicant 94% of marketers use Facebook (followed by Instagram at 73%). Sixty-one percent of marketers claim Facebook is their most important social platform. Facebook ads are used by 72% of marketers and 59% plan on increasing their use of Facebook ads over the next 12 months. The above summary is just a taste of what's in this report. On the following pages, you'll nd 60+ charts that visually convey some fascinating ndings. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 5 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Top questions faced by social media marketers We asked marketers whether they'd like answers to broad social marketing questions. The graph below indicates the percentage who agreed or strongly agreed that they were seeking answers to these questions. At least 85% of marketers surveyed were interested in answers to all of the following questions: This can be summarized with the following keywords: 1. Engagement 2. Tactics 3. Organic Reach 4. Customer Acquisition 5. Measurement 6. Ads 7. Video For the rst time ever, achieving better engagement is the top question marketers want answered. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 6 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Benets of social media marketing A signicant 93% of all marketers indicated that their social media e“orts have generated more exposure for their businesses. Increased tra#c was the second major benet, with 87% reporting positive results. These benets have remained in the top two spots for the last 5 years. All of the benets have improved since 2018: Increased exposure grew to 93% from 87%. Increased tra#c improved to 87% from 78%. Generated leads increased to 74% from 64%. Improved sales rose to 72% from 53%. Developed loyal fans grew to 71% from 63%. Provided marketplace insight expanded to 58% from 54%. Increased thought leadership increased to 57% from 46%. Grew business partnerships improved to 56% from 49%. A question that naturally emerges from the above chart is, “Are marketers who've been using social media for years achieving better results?“ The following charts address this question. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 7 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Improved sales A large percentage of marketers nd better sales results with more years of social media experience. For example, more than 70% of marketers who've been using social media for more than 12 months report it helped them improve sales. In the past, using social media for selling was a big challenge for marketers. It appears that most have overcome this issue. Increased exposure Nearly all marketers (91%+) who've been using social media marketing for 1 year or longer report it generates exposure for their businesses. Grew business partnerships Using social media to grow partnerships seems to be underused by most marketers. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 8 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Generated leads More than two-thirds of marketers with more than 12 months of social media marketing experience were generating leads with social platforms. Increased tra“c Those who've used social media for 1 year or longer reported substantially better results driving tra#c (86%+ reported benets), compared with those with less experience. Provided marketplace insight There doesn't appear to be much of a change in this benet based on years of experience. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 9 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Developed loyal fans Building a loyal fan base seems to be an advantage that improves over time. Increased thought leadership Only those with the most experience (5+ years) have seen real success with building thought leadership. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 10 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Commonly used social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are the top two platforms used by marketers, by a long shot. All other platforms lag behind these top two. NOTABLE CHANGES SINCE 2018 Instagram grew from 66%. Twitter fell from 62%. LinkedIn expanded from 56%. YouTube moved up from 50%. Pinterest rose slightly from 27%. Snapchat declined from 8%. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 11 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Platform use: Beginners vs. advanced marketers Here's a close examination of which social channels experienced social media marketers are using (the green bars: more than 5 years experience), compared to those just getting started (the blue bars: less than 12 months experience). New social media marketers mostly focus on Facebook (89%) and Instagram (63%). The most experienced marketers are highly diversied. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 12 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Platform use: B2C marketers This chart shows that nearly all business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers are focused on Facebook. Interestingly, B2C marketers reduced their use of Twitter (down from 62% in 2018) and increased their use of Instagram (up from 72% in 2018). 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 13 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner Platform use: B2B marketers This chart shows that most business-to-business (B2B) marketers use Facebook and a signicant percentage use LinkedIn. B2B marketers have increased their use of Instagram in the last year, up from 57% in 2018. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 14 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner A World-Class Conference in Americas Finest City: San Diego, California Visit SocialMediaExaminer/event Join thousands of fellow marketers and inuencers at the mega-conference designed to empower you with business-building ideas brought to you by Social Media Examiner. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILSThe most important social platform for marketers is. We asked marketers to select the single most important social platform for their business. Because only one choice was allowed, the ndings are revealing. Most marketers (61%) chose Facebook as their most important platform. This chart clearly reveals Facebook is still the primary platform for marketers. NOTABLE CHANGES SINCE 2018 Facebook dropped from 67%. Instagram jumped from the #3 slot to the #2 slot, up from 10%. LinkedIn lost the #2 slot, but grew from 12%. YouTube grew to the #4 slot, up from 4%. 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 15 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner B2B vs. B2C Notice the fascinating di“erences between B2B- and B2C-focused marketers. Clearly, Facebook dominates in the B2C space (69% of marketers select it as their number-one choice). However, for B2B marketers, Facebook also grabs the most important slot, surpassing LinkedIn. Facebook dropped from 75% of B2C claiming it was their most important platform in 2018 to 69% in 2019.B2B B2C 2019 Social Media Marketing SocialMediaExaminer Page of 16 46 Industry Report © 2019 Social Media Examiner The rise and fall of social plat