#167: The Current State of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is here, it's here to stay, and it's bigger than ever. But who can keep up with the trends, the new networks, and the shifting sands of strategy and tactics? How do you know what to spend your time on, and what's a waste? Who could possibly sort through this mass of possible opportunities or pitfalls?

You- that's who! All you really need is the 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. In today's episode, I'll tell you where to get it, why it's important, what to look for, and how you can use this valuable piece of marketing intelligence to catapult your social media marketing forward in the remaining half of the year! Other reasons to keep listening include:

• How to write a $10 Million sales page…
• Why you can have hope no matter how big your challenges…
• And your last chance to get a free training video on how to start, run, and grow a business that changes the world.

Spiritual Foundations

You Lose Nothing Because God Restores Everything

No matter what situation you find yourself in, you can be assured that God sees you, cares for you, and will provide for you… and beyond that, he will restore what the enemy has stolen, and set you up better than you were before!

In the Old Testament, God protected Hagar and her son Ishmael when she was cast out from Abraham's house. Hagar called Him "the God who sees me".

While Job was severely tested, God did restore everything he lost and more.

When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, unknown to them he rose to rule over all of Egypt. He was not bitter, but said, "What you intended for evil, God intended for good, so that I could save your lives and many others."

And in Romans 8:28 the Apostle Paul tells us "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good…"

So remember, no matter what may come your way, God is for you and not against you, he will restore you to better than you were before.

His grace is bigger than any setback, problem, or circumstance, even the ones that seem impossible.

He sees you.

He restores and heals.

What the enemy intends for your evil, God will repurpose for your good.

And He makes ALL THINGS work together for your good!

Tip Of the Week

Would you like to know how to write a $10 Million sales page?

I'm going to show you just that next Tuesday, June 2, 2015 in a special free Masterclass. This is a live training, so I'm sorry – if you're listening to this after June 2, 2015, this opportunity has already passed you by. That's why it's a good idea to listen to the podcast every week, and subscribe to my email newsletter!

We only have 1,000 seats available for this Masterclass, so register now at https://rayedwards.com/masterclass.

Feature Presentation: The State of Social Media Marketing

The 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report is out. The purpose of the report is to show how marketers are using social media to grow their businesses.

The report is authored by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

It's their 7th annual report, 52 pages, and over 80 charts. It's all easy to understand and digest, and Mike takes the time to point out the "not-so-obvious" findings.

Over 3,700 marketers responded to the survey that produced this report, and I don't know of any other source from which you can get this kind of data.

Why This Report Is Of Value To You

I highly recommend you get the report for yourself and start digesting it. Most of your peers will probably ignore it… and of those who download it, most will not read it… and of those who do read it, only a small, single-digit percentage of them will actually take the time to understand it and reason through the implications. Place yourself in that small minority, and you give yourself an enormous success advantage you can start capitalizing on immediately.

I'll give you a top line taste of what can be gained from this report in moment, but let me echo some advice form the report itself. This information is for you regardless of your experience level with social media marketing.

If you're experienced with social media, compare yourself against other marketers, see which platforms they're looking at next and determine whether you're achieving the same benefits as your more experienced peers.

If you're a beginner (or really any level), take a look at the time commitment, benefits and platforms that your peers are using.

• The time commitment: The report examines the weekly hours marketers invest in their social media efforts. This analysis will be helpful for marketers just getting started or those seeking support staff.

• The benefits of social media marketing: This section of the study reveals all of the major advantages marketers are achieving with their social media efforts. It also looks at how weekly time invested and years of experience affect the results.

• Most-used social media platforms: Discover which platforms marketers are using and how their usage will change this year. The report also examines which platforms experienced marketers are using.

Other interesting, and more advanced topics in the report include…

• Social media networks people want to learn more about: In this section, you'll discover the social platforms that marketers are most interested in learning about.

• The report also examines the role of content in social media marketing, paid social media and how marketers respond when new networks emerge.

• Plus questions such as how business-to-business (B2B) companies differ from business-to-consumer (B2C) companies and whether the size of a business has any bearing on results.

• Perhaps most interesting of all, the report also highlights significant changes since last year's study.

I Know What You REALLY Want… Here Are The Top Nuggets From The Report

Okay, I know how it is. You're busy and you want me to read the report FOR you and give you a summary. And that's what I'm going to do. But it would be a huge mistake for you to leave it there. You see, there is a very deep and valuable advantage and opportunity for you in the report, but to make it work you're going to have to get the report and mine this particular pot of gold for yourself. I'll explain all that shortly, but for now, let me satisfy your curiosity with some of the primary findings…

• Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn hold the top spots for future plans: A significant 66% of marketers plan on increasing their use of these social networks.

• Marketers want to learn most about Facebook: While 93% of marketers are using Facebook, 68% want to learn more about it and 62% plan on increasing Facebook activities.

• Video becoming important: A significant 57% of marketers use video in their marketing; however, 72% want to learn more about video marketing and plan on increasing their use of video.

• Podcasting on growth trajectory: Only 10% of marketers are involved with podcasting, yet 26% plan on increasing their podcasting activities and 43% of marketers want to learn more about podcasting.

• Facebook and LinkedIn are the two most important social networks for marketers. When allowed to only select one platform, 52% of marketers selected Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 21%.

• Most marketers aren't sure their Facebook marketing is effective: Only 45% of marketers think that their Facebook efforts are effective.

• Tactics and engagement are top areas marketers want to master: At least 91% of marketers want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage their audience with social media.

The Hidden Opportunity I Spoke Of Earlier

Perhaps the most opportunity-rich information in the report are the top 5 social media questions marketers want answered.

The top social media questions marketers want answered can be summarized in the following keywords: tactics, engagement, measurement, audience and tools—in that order.

But do not stop here. If you are a social media marketing provider or agency, if you are a consultant or coach, or i you train people in social media marketing, this is the vein of pure gold you're looking for. Here, in this section of the report, you will find the topics for your next consulting sessions, online courses, blog posts, and podcasts!

My advice: go beyond the obvious top line conclusions, spend some time reading an digesting, and think. Think about the following:

How can you take advantage of the trends for promoting your own business? How can you model the best behavior for you clients and students?

What connections can you draw that take data from different areas of this report and tie them together into new strategic and tactical approaches to marketing incorporating social media.

And then dig deeper: how can marry your specific knowledge of your target market with the trends and current needs of marketers revealed in this report, and use that mixture to create new rocket fuel for marketing programs? Thinking of this nature will give you an advantage your competitors will not even understand, let alone duplicate.

For those of you intrepid enough to actually heed my advice, you'll find more than 80 charts that visually convey some fascinating findings. For example, the report looks at which social networks are used by those who invest the most time in social media marketing, the benefits achieved by those who've been at this for years and how marketers respond to new social networks.

There's much more to be mined from this report. I've only scratched the surface.

What most will fail to realize is what a generous gift Mike Stelzner gives us with this report. In fact, I am honestly going to try and convince him to charge for this. An independent study, commissioned to retrieve the same level of response, exactness of data, and rigorous construction of the questions to yield unbiased, statistically reliable results would surely be a minimum six-figure investment.

You get all this for free. At least until I can talk Mike out of the crazy tree, and get him start charging something for this treasure chest… which is filled with treasure maps to other treasure chests!

Someday. But in the words of Aragorn, son of Arathorn, not this day. For now, it's still free, so go download your report now at:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/

What is the most interesting and useful insight you got from the new report?

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