By Chris Lee

Social media marketing has gone mainstream, according to a new report from the US. The Social Media Examiner 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report found that from a field of 3,300 marketers interviewed a significant 90 per cent said that social media is “important” for their business.

According to the study, more than three quarters (77 per cent) plan to increase their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area of investment for 2011. This figure was especially high amongst organisations with 1,000 or more staff. Meanwhile, 70 per cent said they want to learn more about marketing on Facebook and 69 per cent want to learn more about blogging.

Benefits of social media marketing

The most-cited advantage of social media marketing by some distance was the opportunity to generate more business exposure, with increased traffic and improved search rankings also seen as significant benefits by the marketers questioned.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the favoured social media channels used were Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, although social media outsourcing was found to be underutilised with less than a third (28 per cent) of businesses outsourcing some proportion of their social media marketing.

Many businesses are finding that social media marketing is taking a lot of their time, with the majority (58 per cent) using social media for more than six hours or more each week and more than a third (34 per cent) spending upwards of 11 hours a week on social media activity.

Frequently asked questions

According to the survey, by far the most frequently asked question in social media marketing is “how do I monitor and measure the return on investment of social media?”

Organisations want to know the key metrics to measure return on the time and financial investment made in social media marketing. Companies also want to understand how they can integrate social media marketing with their wider marketing activities, as well as learning how to sell and engage more closely with customers over social media channels.

The vast majority of firms plan to cancel or stop investing in their activities on MySpace, while just 40 per cent said they would increase their social bookmarking activities. Only 36 per cent of business will increase their activities on online forums this year, a slight improvement on 2010, while more than a third (35 per cent) have no plans to use forums.

What a difference a year makes

This is the third annual study that Social Media Examiner has carried out and since last year “understanding social media best practices” was found to have dropped from the second most-asked question to the seventh. This would indicate a growth in confidence in how companies create and execute social media campaigns. Managing integration into wider marketing campaigns is now the fastest-growing concern amongst marketers.

“Social media has gone mainstream. And for businesses it represents an unprecedented marketing opportunity that transcends traditional middlemen and connects companies directly with customers. This is why nearly every business on the planet is exploring social media marketing initiatives,” said Michael Stelzner, author of the report and editor of Social Media Examiner. “Two years ago, businesses were uncertain about social media. Now it's here to stay and companies are rapidly responding to new social media opportunities.”