On the business use of Social Media, Bonin Bough, VP of Global Media for Mondelez Int'l (formerly Kraft Foods) says: "The icons of this generation are the Like button, the Tweet button and the Re-Blog button. This is the biggest transformation of communication with consumers in our lifetime, so to not learn how to participate in those channels is outrageous. To stand on the sidelines is not an option."

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For many in the business world Social Media remains a mystery. There is a strong push to use it, but how and for what benefit remain the dominant questions. Following are some insights from the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report that will help provide answers.

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• Virtually all business marketers (97%) engage Social Media at some level and 86% believe doing so is important to their business.
• However, only ¼ of marketers (26%) believe they are able to measure their ROI from Social Media activities. (This is the dilemma for most businesses. You know you've got to be in it, but it is harder to know what is gained.)
• The top five ranked benefits of using Social Media are:

• Increased exposure - 89%
• Increased traffic - 75%
• Gaining marketplace insight - 69%
• Developing loyal fans - 65%
• Lead generation - 61%

• Improved sales was lowest of the ranked benefits, however, those who take time to develop Social Media leads eventually got better results. (Makes sense.)
• The five most commonly used Social Media platforms are:

• Facebook - 92%
• Twitter - 80%
• LinkedIn - 70%
• Blogging - 58%
• You Tube - 56%

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If your business is considering increasing its Social Media activities, it probably makes sense to work with these commonly used platforms. However demographics matter and new Social Media platforms can rise quickly. For example, businesses marketing to consumers (B2C) have more success using Facebook than businesses marketing to businesses (B2B).

Conversely B2B marketers get better results from LinkedIn than B2C marketers do. You Tube is on the rise and like Instagram tends to favor the younger demographic.

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Hope this helps!