This post has been updated with 2019 relevant information.

Just the Facts, Please
Small businesses have to be strategic with their time and resources. They can’t pick all the bright shiny apples found in the new and sometimes overwhelming forest of social media marketing. Where to start? What to budget? What are my colleagues doing? All great questions.

A long time leader in communicating the details and trends around the social media monster, Social Media Examiner put a sharp and pointed report together that gives you the 2016 facts regarding what tactics are most popular with who and why. The report is called 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses. The facts are compelling and I hope they help you form a strategic approach to social media for your business in 2017. Until you have time to read the full report, here are the highlights:

Straight from the article – What you need to consider when planning your 2017 Social Media:

Video has become essential
A significant 60% of marketers use video in their marketing and 73% plan on increasing their use of video. You need at least short 30 second spots on your web site and your social media channels.

“Live” video is hot
A significant 50% of marketers plan on using live video services such as Facebook Live and Periscope, and 50% want to learn more about live video. Going live on Facebook is an easy way to get started.

Facebook and YouTube hold the top spots for future plans
At least 63% of marketers plan on increasing their use of these social networks.

One of the easiest ways to get your product intro, training and other videos on line is to create a YouTube channel and post away! Videos need not be over produced or lengthy, just clear, punch messages about your product and customers.

Snapchat is on a growth trajectory: Only 5% of marketers are using Snapchat, yet 16% plan on increasing their Snapchat activities and 28% of marketers want to learn more about Snapchat.

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook

Facebook is fundamental to a social media strategy, but be careful.
When asked to select their most important platform, 55% of marketers chose Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 18%. Plus, 67% of marketers plan on increasing their Facebook marketing activities.

Many marketers are unsure about their Facebook marketing: A significant 40% of marketers don’t know if Facebook traffic has declined in the last 12 months and 35% aren’t sure if their Facebook marketing is effective.

Facebook ads dominate: A surprising 86% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads, while only 18% use Twitter ads.

Facebook Tables Turned
However, in 2018 Mr. Zuckerberg turned the tables drastically by requiring Facebook business page owners to pay to boost, even to 95% of their own followers. You can no longer assume that your Facebook followers will see your posts. Unfortunately, Linked and Instagram are following suit. Click To Tweet

How to Move Forward Despite Facebook Greed
The actions to take to address this shift, at least in the opinion of most web site marketing experts, is to own and manage a site, your own content, ad strategy, security and ecommerce efforts. Don’t expect Facebook  or their cohorts to care as much as you do about your brand or selling your products.

For business marketers specifically, Facebook, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube can not be ignored. And the content to develop is clearly video, visuals (graphics and imagery with text messaging) and blog posts. The report gives great trend data and specific direction on where to start if Social Media has you baffled.
Here is the link to the full report – happy reading!

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