4.

2 The identity of the survey respondents

In analysing the data, it is a good idea to start with the identity of the respondents

themselves. As suggested in chapter 3, respondents were given a choice by the

questionnaire’s very first question: to identify themselves in one of the following ways:

 You are a social media consultant and/or involved in some capacity as a social media

advisor to your (or any other) organisation

 You work for an organisation that to a greater or lesser extent uses social media as a

marketing tool

If they ticked the first box, respondents were taken to a further 14 questions; if they ticked

the second, a further 20. This sorting device worked well as a reasonably even split

developed: 37 completed the first set of questions, 51 the second, a 42/58% balance. The

questionnaire asked for respondents to identify themselves by name and by company,

although it was stated that this information was “preferred but not essential”. Despite this,

90% gave their names and 88% provided their company’s name.

The questionnaire aimed at organisations included more questions on the nature of those

organisations as this information was clearly instructive in terms of the research objectives.

4.2.1 The respondent organisations

The majority of the respondents were private companies based in the UK, although it should

be noted that there was an extremely healthy proportion of US respondents. This may at

first seem odd, given that this was a survey generated by a British student at a British
university, but it should really be no surprise given the boundary-ignoring capability of social

media (or indeed that the two of the ‘others’ were from New Zealand and Slovenia).

Figure 4.3:
Location of
organisations Other
using social 8%
media

USA
35% UK
57%

Respondents: Organisations

The pie chart showing the public/private split is best considered when placed next to the

data from the similar question in the consultants’ questionnaire. We can therefore

appreciate both the sectors worked in by organisations using social media marketing, and

the sectors worked in by the clients of social media consultants. Essentially, the two are the

same thing, although it could be argued that the clients of social media consultants have

potentially invested more seriously in social media in that they are actually paying an

outside agency to advise them on it. Interestingly though, the two pie charts are fairly

similar, and suggest that the majority of organisations using social media are in the private

sector.
 Figure 4.4:
Sector of
organisations
using social Public
16%
media

Private
84%

Respondents: Organisations

Figure 4.5:
Type of
organisations Public
using social 12%
media Both public
consultants and private
27%

Private
61%

Respondents: Consultants

Digging a bit deeper into the nature of the respondent organisations, the data demonstrates

that a majority provide services (46%) in a business-to-business context (46%), although

businesses targeting consumers do account for 35%. A range of sizes of companies are also

represented, everything from very small businesses to multinationals. The final chart shows

that out of 10 employment sectors represented, over a third were in the creative field. This
could to an extent be attributed to the types of person the author is following on Twitter,

and it may well be that this chart is more of interest as a footnote and that little significance

can justifiably be placed next to it.

The latter chart in this section (Figure 4.10) demonstrates the youth of this field, with 78%

of respondent organisations admitting to only having introduced social media within the last

two years.

Figure 4.6:
What the
organisations
Neither Products
sell
13% 11%

Both
30%
Services
46%

Respondents: Organisations

Figure 4.7:
Who the
organisations
are targeting Other
19%

Business-to-
business
46%
Business-to-
consumer
35%

Respondents: Organisations
 Figure 4.8: Over 10,000
Size of 3%
organisations
by number of 01-10
employees 24%
1,001-10,000
19%

501-1,000
8%

101-500 11-100
16% 30%

Respondents: Organisations

Figure 4.9:
Organisation
Charity, voluntary or not-for-profit
sector
11% 2% Construction and property
3%
Insurance
3%
38% IT and telecoms

Leisure and tourism

Information
21%
Technology/software

Public sector

Recruitment
3% 5%
11% Media, marketing, PR, digital and
3%
creative
Respondents: Organisations
 Figure 4.10: 5-9 years
Length of 3%
time using
social media
2-4 years
19%
Under a year
40%

1-2 years
38%

Respondents: Organisations

4.3 The usage of social media marketing

The first key set of data relates to the usage of social media technologies in a business

context. In this question, and indeed any question where the percentages do not add up to

100%, respondents were allowed to tick as many boxes as necessary. This was clearly

because organisations involved in social media tend to use a combination of technologies

and it would have been disingenuous to ask for just one or perhaps a preferred technology.

4.3.1 The technologies and sites being used by organisations

Figure 4.11 shows that the vast majority (94.6%) of organisations involved in social media

marketing are using social networks, the clear leader over blogging (67.6%) and video

(62.2%). This data is supported by Figure 4.12, which pinpoints social networking site

Facebook as the most popular social media site used by organisations, ahead of YouTube,

Twitter and LinkedIn, all some distance back with around 50%. This chart also amply

demonstrates the breadth of sites being used: of the 20 options given, only the Google-
operated social networking site Orkut received no votes. Among the sites provided by those

respondents who ticked ‘Other’ were Typepad, Zoom, Last.fm, Wikipedia, Pipl and Xing.

Social networks
94.60%
Blogging 67.60%

Video 62.20%

Photos 54.10%

RSS 48.60%

Social bookmarking sites 40.50%

Microblogging 40.50% Figure 4.11: Social

media technologies
Podcasts 37.80% used by organisations

Wikis 21.60%

Other 8.10%
Respondents: Organisations
 Facebook 86.50%
YouTube 56.80%
Twitter 56.80%
LinkedIn 54.10%
Flickr 37.80%
Wordpress 29.70%
Delicious 29.70%
StumbleUpon 27.00%
MySpace 21.60%
Reddit 21.60%
Digg 21.60%
Other 18.90%
Figure 4.12: Social
Ning 16.20%
media sites used by
Slideshare 16.20% organisations as a
Bebo 8.10% marketing tool
Yammer 5.40%
Blogger 2.70%
HubPages 2.70%
Squidoo 2.70%
Orkut 0.00%
Respondents: Organisations

4.3.2 The effectiveness of social media marketing sites

Both organisations and consultants were asked to quantify what they considered to be the

most effective social media sites from a return on investment perspective. This is of course a

highly subjective notion and is difficult to measure in any way scientifically. However

investment, whether determined in a financial or other resource sense, is a significant

determinant of social media usage and uptake and it was judged that this was a useful

question to ask.

As both sectors of the questionnaire contained this question, it is appropriate to merge the

charts and draw comparison between the two. Twitter was determined the most effective
by both organisations and consultants, with 40.5% and 54.9% respectively. Facebook and

LinkedIn also received a consistent show of approval from both sectors.

In terms of differences between the two, consultants found YouTube much more effective

than organisations (41.2% compared to 21.6%), and blogging platform Wordpress was

considered the third most effective by consultants with 35.3%, but only received 10.8% of

the organisations’ vote. A far greater spread of boxes were ticked in this category by the

consultants, 17 against 10 ticked by the organisations, which could be assigned to the

reasonable conclusion that consultants would be aware of more sites and generally more

knowledgeable about their usage. It is also interesting to note that over a third of consultant

respondents, 37.8%, decided that the answer depended on the industry.

YouTube
Yammer
Wordpress
Twitter
StumbleUpon
Squidoo
Slideshare
Reddit
Other
Orkut
Organisations
Ning
Consultants
MySpace
LinkedIn
HubPages
Flickr
Facebook
Figure 4.13: Most
Digg effective social media
Depends sites in terms of ROI
Delicious
Blogger
Bebo
Respondents: All
 4.3.3 The least effective social media marketing site

Figure 4.14 seeks to identify the least effective social media marketing sites, as determined

by the consultants. This question was left out of the organisations’ questionnaire as they

were not deemed in the best position to be able to answer it in any meaningful fashion.

Similarly to Figure 4.13, a sizeable proportion of the consultants (37.3%) determined that

the effectiveness of a site depended on the industry. In terms of specific sites, MySpace was

identified as the least effective, with 27.5%, followed by Facebook (17.6%), Orkut (15.7%)

and Bebo (13.7%).

Other 11.80% 37.30%

Depends on the particular business or industry
MySpace 27.50%
Orkut 15.70%
Bebo 13.70%
Blogger 5.90%
HubPages 3.90%
Squidoo 5.90%
Ning 9.80%
Wordpress 0.00%
Yammer 5.90%
YouTube 0.00%
StumbleUpon 5.90%
Reddit 9.80% Figure 4.14: Worst
Digg 5.90% performing social media
Slideshare 2.00% sites in terms of ROI
Flickr 7.80%
LinkedIn 7.80%
Twitter 5.90%
Facebook 17.60%
Respondents: Consultants
 4.3.4 The sites that will grow and decrease in popularity over the
next 12 months

The consultants were asked for their verdicts on which sites would demonstrate the fastest

proportional growth, and the fastest proportional decrease, in business usage over the next

12 months. This could also be interpreted as an indication of effectiveness. Again the results

were merged (Figure 4.15). Twitter was again the clear leader, with 84.3%, followed by

YouTube (64.7%), Facebook (52.9%) and LinkedIn (51%). Facebook had the most mixed

response from the consultants, with 25.5% also predicting it would decrease in business

usage over the next 12 months, an interesting point considering Figure 4.12, which placed

Facebook well ahead in terms of actual usage. It was MySpace however that received the

biggest thumbs-down from the consultants, with 52.9% believing it would decrease in

business usage over the next year, against only 3.9% who thought it would grow. Other

notable trends include the resounding vote of confidence for Wordpress, with 45.1%

believing it would grow and no respondents at all suggesting it will decrease.

 Figure 4.15: The social
None
media sites that will
Other grow and decrease the
MySpace most over the next 12
Orkut months
Bebo
Blogger Fastest growth
HubPages
Fastest decrease
Squidoo
Ning
Wordpress
Yammer
YouTube
Delicious
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Slideshare
Flickr
LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Respondents: Consultants

4.3.5 The sites organisations intend to try for the first time over
the next 12 months

A further indication regarding the future direction of social media marketing can be seen

from Figure 4.16. In this instance, it should be noted that the answer “Other” drew such a

high proportion of responses chiefly because no option for “none of the above” or similar

was provided; this was probably an oversight. Of the 16 people who ticked “Other”, 11 said

that either they had not yet decided, or that they were not intending to try any of the sites

listed.
Aside from that issue, Twitter (21.6%) proved the site most likely to be used by

organisations over the next year, followed by YouTube (16.2%).

Other 40.50%
Twitter 21.60%
YouTube 16.20%
Flickr 10.80%
Facebook 10.80%
MySpace 8.10%
Wordpress 8.10%
Delicious 8.10%
Digg 8.10%
LinkedIn 8.10%
Orkut 5.40%
Squidoo 5.40%
Figure 4.16: Social
Ning 5.40%
media sites the
Yammer 5.40% organisations intend
StumbleUpon 5.40% to try over the next 12
Blogger 2.70% months
HubPages 2.70%
Reddit 2.70%
Slideshare 2.70%
Bebo 0.00%
Respondents: Organisations

4.3.6 The popularity of social media marketing measurement sites

This question, which surveyed the consultants only, indicates that Google is dominating the

market in terms of social media measurement tools. A vast majority used Google Analytics

(88.2%) and Google Alerts (80.4%). Of the range of ‘Other’ answers put forward, social

media monitoring company Radian6 was the most popular.

 Google Analytics 88.20%
Google Alerts 80.40%
Technorati 49.00%
Any Twitter tool 45.10%
Other 23.50%
Blogsearch 17.60%
BuzzMetrics 15.70%
Hubspot 15.70%
Blogpulse 15.70%
Yahoo Web Analytics 11.80% Figure 4.17: Tools
used to measure
Omniture 11.80% performance
DoubleClick 5.90%
Core Metrics 5.90%
Techrigy 3.90%
Cymfony 3.90%
Respondents: Consultants

4.4 The adoption of social media marketing

The remainder of the survey set out to discover the reasons and motivation behind the

adoption of social media marketing by organisations. It did this by investigating reasons for

non-adoption, initial motivation and primary benefits of usage, the effect on other

marketing channels, and the impact of the recession.

4.4.1 Reasons for not adopting social media marketing

Both sets of respondents were asked for the primary reason, in their experience, for

businesses deciding not to adopt social media as a marketing tool. In the case of

organisations, this is more likely have been interpreted to have meant other organisations

that they were aware of, and perhaps even reflected their own reasons before deciding to
use social media. In the case of the consultants, it is likely that their answers referred to a

wider group of organisations.

After merging the results, it is clear that the most popular reason for all respondents relates

to ignorance about the benefits social media might have. A total of 48.1% of organisations

and 45.1% of consultants cited this as the key reason. Interestingly, many more

organisations pointed to nervousness of the consequences of getting involved (21.6%

compared to 5.9% of the consultants). The consultants also provided a long list of ‘Other’

reasons not provided by the questionnaire. These included:

 Lack of measurability

 Too time-consuming

 Inadequate resources

 Reluctance of management to change

Figure 4.18: Reasons

for not adopting social
Other
media marketing

Concentration on other marketing channels

Unsatisfactory previous experience

Organisations

Belief that it was not appropriate for their Consultants

industry

Ignorance about its potential benefits

Nervousness about its potential consequences

Respondents: All
 4.4.2 Initial motivation for the organisations adopting social
media marketing

This sought to identify the reasons behind the respondent organisations’ decision to use to

social media marketing, a decision that according to Figure 4.10 was most likely taken within

the last two years. This focused in on the reasons why an organisation would use social

media as a marketing tool, not in this instance for any other reason, such as increasing

productivity or collaboration. The data shows that almost a third of organisations, 29.7%,

initiated social media marketing as a way of increasing awareness of their business within

the marketplace. The second most popular reason was increased lead generation and/or

profitability.

To increase awareness of business within market 29.70%

To increase lead generation and/or profitability 21.60%
To improve networking/engagement with customers 13.50%
To increase website traffic 13.50%
Other 8.10%
To reach a particular market segment 8.10%
Figure 4.19:
To improve understanding of company's reputation 5.40%
Initial motivation
To improve internal communications 0.00% for investing in
To increase RSS subscribers 0.00% social media
To improve search rankings for your keywords 0.00% marketing
To increase the relevancy of the website traffic 0.00%
Respondents: Organisations

4.4.3 Direct benefits of using social media marketing

Where Figure 4.19 concentrated on the motivation behind initially using social media

marketing, Figure 4.20 looks at what has actually happened – whether that motivation has
materialised into tangible benefits. Both sets of respondents were asked for this

information, so the consultants will clearly be talking about the benefits experienced by

their client base.

Although a number of organisations said it was too early to identify clear benefits (note that

none of the consultants ticked that particular box, probably because they could draw from a

wider field of experiences with their clients), their responses demonstrate greater variety

than Figure 4.19. Increased awareness within the marketplace is again highlighted, but by a

smaller majority than Figure 4.19 and there is now a greater variety of other reasons.

There are two clear benefits to social media marketing according to the consultants: an

increased awareness of your business (31.4%) and improved networking or engagement

with customers (33.3%).

Figure 4.20: Primary

benefits of using social Other
media marketing It's too early to tell
Better internal communications
Improved networking/engagement with customers
Increased RSS subscribers Organisations
Improved search rankings for your target keywords Consultants

Increased relevancy of website traffic

Increased website traffic
Increased lead generation and/or profitability
Increased awareness of your business within market
Respondents: All
 4.4.4 The effect of social media marketing adoption on other
media channels

This question was designed to elicit some indication of whether social media is adding to the

marketing spectrum or, rather, replacing more established techniques and channels. The

data shows that although 37.8% of organisations are choosing simply to add social media to

their armoury, the remaining majority are cutting back in other ways in order to facilitate

the new style of marketing. The main losers are direct mail and print advertising, with 18.9%

each, but no other form of marketing is remaining unscathed.

Other 13.50%

None of the above

37.80%
Cold calling 5.40%

Untargeted email marketing 13.50%

Direct mail 18.90% Figure 4.21: Cut

back in marketing
Trade shows and/or exhibitions 10.80%
channels as a
result of social
Television/radio advertising 10.80%
media investment
Print advertising 18.90%
Respondents: Organisations

4.4.5 The impact of the recession

Both sets of respondents are unanimous in their opinion that the recession is going to have

a positive effect on social media marketing (Figure 4.22). A total of 91.9% of the

organisations, alongside 84.3% of the consultants, believed it would have a direct effect on

the new channel’s popularity.

Asked to expand on the reasons for this in the only joint question of the survey, 41.6%

pointed to its cost-effectiveness, with the declining effectiveness of other marketing

channels claiming 19.5% as the second most popular explanation.

Figure 4.22: Will the

recession increase
popularity of social
Yes
media marketing?

Organisations
No, the recession won't affect it
Consultants

It will decrease in popularity

Respondents: Organisations and Consultants

Its cost-effectiveness
41.60%
The declining effectiveness of other marketing
19.50%
channels

Its ability to generate new leads and customers 14.30%

All the hype surrounding it currently 10.40%

Other 7.80%
Figure 4.23: Reasons
for SMM benefitting Its measurability 6.50%
from a recession Respondents: All