For the sixth year now, Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner has published the Social Media Industry Report. The findings in this report are important to all businesses that want to grow. Marketing is often a lot of trial and error. What works in one industry or geographical location, may not work in another. Understanding what other marketing professionals find most important when it comes to growth development is essential to cutting out a lot of extra work and potential failure. Here are ten of the most important statistics that came from the report.

1. Don’t copy content, create your own! The majority of marketers believe that original written content is most important for social media marketing.
2. Social media is a necessary component of marketing. A whopping 92% of marketers said social media was important to their business.
3. Blogging is in! 68% of marketers planning on increasing their use of blogging.
4. The top three ways people are promoting their business are through email marketing, search engine optimization and event marketing.
5. The top two benefits of social media marketing according to the report are increasing exposure and web traffic. In fact, 92% of all marketers felt social media generated more exposure for their business and 80% felt it increased web traffic.
6. Time invested in social media matters as 74% of marketers who spent 6+ hours each week on social media reported earning new business through their efforts.
7. Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent for those who have been using social media for at least a year.
8. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketers had a much higher (77%) loyal fan base through social media than Business-to-Business (B2B) marketers.
9. The most important social media platform is Facebook (54%), with LinkedIn coming in second at 17%.
10. Podcasting is on the radar of successful marketers. While only a small percentage (6%) currently podcast, 21% plan on adding it to their repertoire this year.

The moral of the report is that if you are not already using social media marketing, you should be. If you are not already creating your own original content by way of a blog and social media posts, you need to start. You also should consider the amount of time you invest in social media. The savvier marketers are spending more time on social media presumably because they feel it works. What works for you?

If you would like to review the entire report, you can do so for free through May 30^th by clicking here.