Is Social Media Still The Best Place For Business Marketing?

Social media might have been created to encourage people to stay in touch with their friends, but businesses have been using networking sites for the last 20 years as a way of advertising to potential customers and clients. 

It has since become one of the most effective marketing tools when used correctly, allowing companies to drive engagements and conversions, and ultimately, grow their business. 

However, with anything related to technology, things are always changing, so the question is whether social media remains the best place to market your business?

Popularity of social media marketing

According to the 2023 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, a huge 86 per cent of businesses confirmed online networking sites gave them more exposure. 

It also revealed that three-quarters of companies found it increased traffic to their website; two-thirds believed it generated leads; 56 per cent claimed it helped to develop loyal fans; and 55 per cent stated that it improved their sales. 

Of course, the effectiveness of social media comes down to which site you use, what type of business you have, and whether you are B2C or B2B. 

The report found that 84 per cent of B2C companies believed Instagram to yield positive results, compared with just 57 per cent for LinkedIn. Conversely, 74 per cent of B2B businesses found Instagram to be useful, and a higher 84 per cent believed LinkedIn gave them better results. 

This is because businesses connect with each other more on Facebook, whereas consumers are more likely to be reachable on Instagram and Facebook. 

In fact, 70 per cent of B2C marketers claimed to have acquired customers through Facebook alone. Therefore, without this social media site, many companies would have not been able to reach their customers, and may have failed. 

How many people still use social media?

Social media popularity does not appear to be waning, with 62.3 per cent of the world’s population on some sort of networking site. This means nearly two-thirds of adults and children across the globe have signed up, with the average use being two hours and 23 minutes a day. 

As many as 259 million new users have joined social networks over the last year, showing that it is still attractive to the next generation.

Facebook remains the most popular social media platform, with 3.065 billion users, followed by YouTube (2.5 billion), Instagram and WhatsApp (two billion each), and TikTok (1.58 billion). 

X, formerly known as Twitter, has only 611 million users, demonstrating how use of social media sites has changed over the last few years, with Twitter previously being one of the most popular platforms. 

As social media is still so heavily used by consumers, this suggests its usefulness as a marketing tool is unlikely to change in the near future. 

With the ability to reach so many people at the click of a button, businesses are likely to continue using social media marketing to target potential customers and clients, particularly if more people carry on going year-on-year. 

 To find out how Crisp can help you grow your digital revenue please contact us here or take our Digital Scorecard and find out how you can get better today.