Customer Experience

By adaptive - August 12th, 2014

With so many social media networks to choose from, this year’s survey reveals the changes that have taken place.

As social media has proliferated the number of networks that corporations can choose to use has in our findings coalesced into the trinity of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn that span the B2B and B2C spaces. Last year’s report concluded that Facebook and Twitter were virtually neck-and-neck (89% and 88% respectively). This year’s findings show that little has changed with the corresponding figures being 91.4% and 91% respectively.

Turning to the specific B2B sector we see that Facebook usage has increased from 81% to 84.6% this year. Twitter last year showed a usage level of 87% with this year’s figure being 90.6% making it the most popular social media network after LinkedIn right across the B2B environment.

In the B2C sector, Facebook showed the most usage last year at 97% of respondents. This is down this year to 96.7% whereas, Twitter this year is being used by 89% of respondents when compared to 83% last year. YouTube also showed gains from 71% last year to 72.4% this year.

Matt Gentile, Director, Social Media, Century 21 Real Estate LLC told Useful Social Media: “At CENTURY 21 our brand leads all national real estate franchisees in followers on Facebook and Twitter and we emphasize the importance of having a presence on Facebook and G+ for CENTURY 21 affiliated brokers and agents. However, where our strategy may differ from your findings is in the continuation of our @C21 – Home Matters blog.  The blog is an essential component of our digital marketing. Also, while we have a significant presence on Linkedin as a company, I don’t view it in the same category as Facebook or Google+."

Within the B2B sector LinkedIn has become a clear favourite for corporate users, and continues its preferred status this year with 94% of respondents stating they use the network, which is an increase of 6% on last year’s findings. The use of corporate blogs across both sectors shows a decline from 51% last year to 42% this year. The fall in the popularity of blogging is more pronounced in the B2B space. Last year we reported that 55% of respondents used this platform. This year the figure is 37.8% that is a significant shift away from blogging as a social space.

Matt continued: “We market to both B2B and a B2C audiences and the one figure that stood out to me in the report was, “YouTube though, saw its perceived usefulness erode from 11% - 3.9% even though the trend is for more video to be used this year by corporations to reach their customers.”  According to Nielsen, “YouTube reaches more U.S. adults ages 18 – 34 than any cable network.”  Through our partnership with Videolicious, we have put the power of video production into the hands of our agents who may shoot, edit and upload video directly to their own YouTube accounts in minutes. Video marketing on YouTube as well as individual websites benefits SEO efforts and is a great media for personal branding.”

Interestingly, the use of Google+ seems buoyant with our survey suggesting over half of all respondents (56.7%) use the network. This is interesting, as it puts the network’s naysayers into a realistic perspective that illustrates that Google’s social platform is increasingly finding favour across corporate users. And Google+ also has a healthy following in the B2B sector as well with over half (54.7%) using this network. And Google+ has a similar usage profile in the B2C sector with 56% of respondents in this sector stating they use the network.

And the networks that have appeared relatively recently are also showing good usage: Pinterest leads the way with 43.4%, with Instagram at 35.2% and Vine bringing up the rear with 9.8%.

How useful is social media?

Measuring the usefulness of social media has always been more of an art than a science. However, our study has asked this question over the last four years, which gives a clear progression of usage data we can use to draw some conclusions.

In last year’s report Facebook was the clear favourite amongst B2B and B2C companies. This year however, Facebook’s dominance has eroded slightly from 40% to 38% with Twitter doing better moving up by 2% from 20% last year to 22% this year. It seems that Twitter has continued to be embraced by corporations that see the immediate value of tweets to their brands, and the platforms ability to quickly build brand advocacy.

Century 21 Real Estate LLC’s Matt Gentile continued: “From the brand perspective, we use video and YouTube extensively to enable the consumer to search for property as well as announce important company news.  Recently, the brand announced that it has been ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction by the J.D. Power 2014 Home Buyer/Seller Satisfaction study. In the past this news may have only been conveyed via email, a news release and a blog post. Now, we include the production of a video and post it to YouTube as a normal part of our workflow. YouTube’s usefulness is increasing for our brand and our System.

“Visual marketing is a powerful force and a huge opportunity for brands both large and small in my opinion. We have also taken a proactive approach on Instagram and Pinterest with two pages and multiple boards. Our brand page is a more general page with boards dedicated to various lifestyle options including, City Living, Coastal Living, Mountain Living as well as Beautiful Playrooms, DIY Projects and Interior Design Tips. In terms of global marketing, Fine Homes and Estates is dedicated to our luxury home marketing platform and showcases homes from around the globe that are generally priced above $1 Million and offer stunning visuals.”

Focusing on the B2B sector reveals that LinkedIn has continued to cement its connections with the sector. We reported last year that 37% of respondents said that they found the network useful to their companies. This year we find that the number has increased to 41.7% The changes that the network has put in place over the last year are clearly resonating with the B2B community.

We were surprised to see that Twitter’s usefulness had remained static this year, with Facebook gains from 17% to 24% providing an insight into how this network is finding new followers in the B2B sector in particular. YouTube though, saw its perceived usefulness erode from 11% to 3.9% even though the trend is for more video to be used this year by corporations to reach their customers. But again we saw in this year’s survey that the corporate blog continued to lose out as we saw in the B2C sector with only 5% of respondents stating they find this platform useful, a drop of 7% on last year’s figures.

The frequency of engagement across the leading social media networks was also considered closely. If we focus on the leading three networks of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, last year saw 58% of Facebook users accessing the network more than once a day. This year’s figure has increased by two and half percentage points. The 2013 report highlighted that Twitter was accessed more than once a day by 54% of respondents. This year it has grown to 60%.

Turning to LinkedIn, we see that 35% of respondents state they access the network more than once a day. LinkedIn has made some key announcements in the past year to make its platform more conducive for businesses to access information, connect with businesses and become more ‘social’ within its clearly perceived B2B context.

As we have seen, Google+ has been enjoying some healthy growth over the last year. Indeed, we find that nearly a third (29.9%) of respondents are accessing the network more than once a day, with 13% accessing less than once a month indicating the network is becoming popular and seeing increased levels of traffic. Last year we saw Google+ being accessed more than once a day by respondents, which shows a small increase, but one that is sure to grow.

We also find that Instagram has increased in its usage. Last year 6% of respondents stated they accessed the network more than once a day. This year it has risen to 11.5%. Respondents accessing Pinterest more than once a day has risen from 7% in 2013 to 9% in 2014.

Key findings

Clearly for corporate users supporting a wide range of social media platforms may have been their goal initially, but they have realised quickly which platforms are delivering ROI (where this can be defined) at the levels they have been looking for.

Corporations are putting their efforts into emerging networks such as Google+ and Vine, which show strong growth and consumer engagement – two elements that corporations will always look for when allocating resources.

Matt Gentile concluded: “In terms of usefulness, it is important to remember that social media is still in its infancy as a medium. Think of how advertising evolved on television beginning in the 1940’s through the 1950’s. Facebook has only been around since 2004 and Internet advertising beat broadcast television for the first time in 2013.

“The biggest challenge and opportunity for social networks in my opinion is to enable the masses to advertise their products and services via geo-targeted micro-markets on their networks in ways that are just not possible with broadcast television. Facebook ads and Google Adwords Express are good places to start.”

Our findings for use and usefulness were broadly in line with expectations especially when B2B and B2C sectors are considered in isolation. Clearly the shift that is most marked this year is the drop off in the use of corporate blogging. This was pronounced in the B2C sector, but even more so across B2B corporations, that have chosen to place their resources in the leading networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Download the full The State of Corporate Social Media Briefing 2014.