2018 Yellow Social Media Report Findings: Part two
How are businesses handling the world of social media in 2018? Yellow has the answers.
Social media marketing and usage is now part of everyone’s lives to some extent. As we detailed in part one of our feature, Yellow, part of the Sensis group has recently undertaken an exhaustive survey about how we use social media in our lives. Part one investigated how our personal lives are impacted by the various social media platforms on offer and in this part, we will go into detail on their findings on how business uses social media to reach out and with their audience.
The survey asked 1,100 representatives of small, medium and large businesses to talk about how they use social media and what they find works for them online. Social media is a catch-all term referring to platforms like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, and also any online service that lets people post their own content or ratings and reviews.
Standout findings from the Yellow Business Survey
- Small businesses spend an average of $4,879 annually on social media marketing while large businesses spend $24,538
- 53% of small businesses measure social success via comments and likes
- Only 4% of businesses pay social influencers to promote their brand
- Having a social strategy to drive people to sites matters more depending on business size – small businesses (70%), medium (88%) and large (94%).
- 63% of large businesses said extra social media expenditure in 2019 would see cuts in other forms of marketing and advertising.
But not every business has a social media presence and the report found that the rate of attachment to social media grows as the business increases in size.
- 51% of Small business have a social media presence
- 58% of Medium business have a social media presence
- 85% of Large business have a social media presence
For businesses of all sizes that have no social media presence, the largest barrier to jumping on board is that they do not believe there is a tangible benefit to being online. However, 12% of small businesses and 5% of the medium businesses that are not already on social media do intend to joining in the coming year.
The biggest social media platform for businesses, regardless of size, is Facebook. On average nine out of ten businesses sport a Facebook page for people to Like. After that, the numbers vary on the size of the company, with Instagram being the second-most desired platform for large businesses but that position belongs to LinkedIn for the other sizes.
Irrelevant or unappealing content is the most influential factor stopping people from following a brand or company on social media in recent months.
As sighted in part one of the report, many consumers use social media to interact with their friends and family, but there is an increasing number of businesses who no longer see social media as an open communication channel. In last year’s survey, 95% of large businesses saw social media as a method to have a two-way dialogue with their customers, but that number has now dropped to 76%. Similarly, just over half of small and medium sized businesses invite customer feedback.
The most common rate of social media postings for businesses is once per day.
So, what do businesses find attracts people to their social media profiles? By far and away the biggest drawcards are exclusive discounts and even product or service giveaways. Allocating part of your company’s advertising budget to this kind of social media outreach can be beneficial in the long run. In fact, the survey found that almost half of large businesses spent over $10,000 annually on an advertising campaign that includes a social media contingent.
Companies across the board have discovered that the most effective method for getting social media followers are direct links from their website.
However, only between 21% and 35% of businesses measure any potential return on investment that their social media feeds represent. Estimates range from 24% (small and large companies) to 19% (medium companies) with the return being measured as an increase in the number of followers social media accounts have, in addition to sales made through social media channels.
Across the vast majority of businesses surveyed was an expressed desire to increase their social media presence through more funding in this area. This funding is expected to come out of other departments budgets in large businesses, but not in small or medium-sized businesses.
At iFactory, we have dedicated social media content creators who are experts in expanding the reach of our clients online. Whether it’s through a targeted advertising campaign, increasing consumer outreach or as part of a general launch strategy, iFactory has you covered. Talk to iFactory today to see how we can help your business grow online advertising.
Still want more? Check out our fast stats on business and social media from the 2018 Yellow Social Media Report on Pinterest.
