2011 Social Media Survey Results
In the summer of 2010, FrogDog conducted a survey to understand how people used social media. (Click here to read the results from 2010.) One year later, we ran the same survey to see what changed. (Note: Because Google+ didn’t exist in 2010, and it’s so new in 2011, we didn’t include it in our survey questionnaire.)
We found that a few things haven’t changed—and a few others truly have.
For example, Facebook was the dominant social medium in 2010, used most predominantly for every social media purpose measured, including spreading marketing messages, business and professional networking, staying up to date on the news, connecting with friends and family, and entertainment.
Not true today. Facebook is still the big gorilla, but Twitter and LinkedIn are breathing down its neck in a couple categories:
- Corporate Messaging: Facebook (at 86 percent) only barely edged out Twitter (at 79 percent) as a way for companies to disseminate corporate messaging. LinkedIn was a distant third at 57 percent, followed by YouTube at 36 percent. Blogs? A strong fourth place in 2010, they are much weaker in 2011, at 21 percent.
- Business and Professional Networking: Compared to 2010, LinkedIn (at 79 percent) has significantly shot ahead of Facebook (at 64 percent) when it comes to business and professional networking, showing that the site has figured out how to better attract and engage business users over the year. But don’t ignore Twitter, which is a close third in this category at 57 percent.
- Information: Companies are doing a fairly good job of keeping pace with where people are going to get information these days, although they may be relying on Facebook and LinkedIn more than they should and be ignoring blogs when they shouldn’t. In this category, Twitter (at 71 percent) edged out Facebook (at 64 percent) as the top go-to when it comes to staying informed. In distant third place—but still going strong—were blogs, which 43 percent of respondents use to get information.
- Social Interaction: No shocker here: Facebook is the clear winner when it comes to connecting with family and friends. It dominated this category at a solid 93 percent of respondents saying that they used this medium predominantly for this type of interaction. Twitter was a distant second place at a measly 21 percent. Given that Facebook was originally developed for interacting with people you know, and Twitter was designed to connect people in conversation who may not be in-person contacts, this isn’t surprising.
- Entertainment: Facebook (at 79 percent) and YouTube (at 57 percent) are the top entertainment players in the social media space—again, not a surprise. However, in 2010, people frequently visited blogs for entertainment purposes. While they still do (at 43 percent), Twitter has edged them out (at 50 percent). Given that blogs have increased over the year as a resource for information, this indicates that more users are visiting blogs for concrete, useful information, and less for purely fun interactivity.
The most drastic difference over the year has been the increase in the frequency of social media use. In 2010, most companies interacted with the public through social media once a month (23 percent) or several times a week (19 percent). Only 12 percent of companies used social media daily or several times a day in 2010.
In 2011? We have a completely different picture. This year, 29 percent of companies use social media several times a day. A full 21 percent use it several times a week.
Unfortunately—especially given the increased use—respondents’ companies still haven’t spent the time they should thinking about their strategy for social media. (And how can you measure results without a plan? This makes social media one of the most abandoned marketing activities. See our article on orphaned tactics for more on this issue.)
In 2011, 64 percent of respondents said their companies do not have formal plans for social media marketing. In 2010, 62 percent of people said the same. These are disheartening results. We’d hoped that, by now, we’d see improvement in this area. (Although perhaps we should have known better than to be surprised. As we noted in our article on marketing mistakes, a lack of marketing strategy is a consistent corporate problem.)
By using social media without a plan, these companies could be damaging—and certainly are not furthering—their corporate branding (read our branding series for what we mean here), turning off potential clients and current clients, and wasting valuable staff time.
Let’s hope that our 2012 survey will show companies savvying up and developing formal strategies with their marketing teams or marketing strategy consultants. Social media is here to stay, folks.
