75% of Americans use Social Media according to Nielsen, on average 15 minutes of every hour online is used in Social Media and 75% of businesses surveyed plan to increase their Social Media footprint in 2011!
These are some of the staggering stats coming from the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Michael Stelzner, which will be available on Thursday April 6th, from socialmediaexaminer.com at this link:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2011/

This blog  is all about the statistics that Michael has gathered in his research, and he very kindly allowed me to share some of the graphs with you.
But I recommend getting the report for yourself!

Here are some more:

1. Social media marketing is now a 50/50 split between B2B and B2C.
2. A staggering 92% of businesses surveyed say that social media is important to their business.
3. 58% of marketers use Social Media for at least 6hrs a week, and 34% of them for 11 or more hours a week… that's over 2 hrs a day in a 5 day week!

© socialmediaexaminer.com - used with permission.

Now these are amazing figures, but is Social Media something business are planing to use more; are they seeing it as helpful to their brand, or are we going to see the Social Media trend fizzle out?
It seems pretty obvious in this research that Social Media no mere trend, it is making more room for itself at a quicker rate than any marketing tool in history:

1. Video
   77% of marketers plan to increase their YouTube (or other video) marketing.
   82% of businesses with 1000 or more employees plan to move to video blogging.
2. Facebook
   75% of the 92% of businesses who use Social Media in marketing plan to increase their use of Facebook!
   83% of large businesses will increase their Facebook use.
   And Facebook is still the dominant entry level Social Media tool.
3. Blogs
   75% of businesses plan to increase their use of blogs.
   79% of self-employed plan to increase their blogging footprint.
4. Geo-location (Foursquare like)
   30% of businesses plan to increase the use of Geo-location services and 55% have no plans to use them.
5. Groupon type services
   19% of marketers plan to use them and 67% don't plan to use them.

Don't be fooled by these newer tools like geo-location and group type bying services. They are in the position that Facebook was in a few years ago.

What do people want to learn about?

1. 70% of marketers want to learn more about Facebook.
2. 65% of B2B want to learn about Facebook and blogging, and 74% B2C want to learn about Facebook, while 72% want to learn about blogging.

© socialmediaexaminer.com - used with permission.

What are marketers using Social Media for?

1. 88% are using it to generating exposure.
2. 72% have seen an increase of web traffic and subscribers.
3. 62% have improved search rankings on their website which they attribute to Social Media.
4. 56% report establishing new business partnerships through Social Media.
5. 51% are generating qualified leads with small business seeing the best results.
6. 49% have reduced their overall marketing expenses.
7. And 43% report improved sales directly through Social Media.

It seems that the time you have been active in Social Media is crucial, with the majority having used Social Media between 1 and 3 years, and the most successful having been socially active on the Internet for three years or longer.
Hours spent per week on Social media is also crucial, a minimum of 6hrs seems to be required for any measurable success.

© socialmediaexaminer.com - used with permission.

Even a conservative estimate points to Social Media being a marketing reality and that it will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
If you're not involved yet it's not too late but you need to move really quickly. Where do you start?

1. 92% start on Facebook
2. 64% on Twitter
3. 71% on Linkedin
4. 64% on Blogs
5. 54% on Youtube or other video websites
6. 26% on Social bookmarking sites
7. 17% on Forsuqare and similar services

Of those using Social Media the most (40+ hrs a week) are creating more video content than blogs! And B2B is beginning to use more blogs, LinkedIn and video than B2C users.

© socialmediaexaminer.com - used with permission.