Unlike many of the more or less successful or witty lists that populate the social networks and media, which present below it is not the result of my imagination even of my experience (although certainly intuitively would have agreed with most statements). It has much more value as the result of one of the most comprehensive surveys in the field of Social Media Marketing by the American specialist Michael Stelzner sponsored by Social Media Examiner over 3,000 marketers just 3 months ago. Here are some of the most important conclusions.

The Social Media Marketing is no longer something new or accessory seem to form part of the core of the marketing offer of the company. 86% consider it ‘important to your business’ with YouTube leading the interest for the future: 69% is proposed to increase its investment in network video par excellence. Meanwhile, Facebook and LinkedIn continue to be the major networks, although most believe your efforts on Facebook are not giving satisfactory results. This connects with the perception that their measurement or analytical is not up: only 26% believe it is doing well in this department. Positive, notes that more than two thirds of respondents respond that they have already successfully integrated social media with the rest of your marketing plan offline.

Let’s now at 9 reasons that are not other that the 9 benefits that have attracted the most votes in order of importance.

1. Increased visibility . This is the king of the perceived benefits with 92% and an investment of time of about 6 hours per week. For the vast majority of marketers, social media are always translate into greater visibility for your business and its product or service

2. Increased Traffic . 78% of respondents have confirmed that more traffic is generated, and also a direct correlation between the longest and carry a higher rate of traffic generated for your websites appears.

3. It helps to know the market . For 70%, a strategic presence in social media has helped them better understand the market in which they operate, with information of real value of which then have been used to refine and improve its range of marketing

4. Increase brand loyalty . Especially for those who sell directly to consumers (B2C), the appearance of the famous loyalty brand has become a reality. It noted that there is a big difference between those who spend six hours or more to social media and earning a higher return. An average of 65% of respondents have alluded to this benefit

5. Generate leads or leads . With an investment of only 6 hours per week, 64% of marketers indicated that managed to attract potential customers without investing in expensive traditional marketing campaigns. There is nothing.

6. Improved search engine rankings . This is one reason that more and more weight will be charging due to changes in the social sense of Google and other search engines. It was highlighted by 58% of respondents.

7. emerge agreements and business partnerships . More than half of marketers that take a year or more in social media have seen firsthand its effectiveness in finding potential partners and partners.

8. Reduction in marketing expenses . Almost half reported reductions in their marketing investment as a result of adopting social media marketing over other more traditional approaches.

9. Improvements in sales . 43% of those surveyed marketers includes sales within the ROI or ROI of social media marketing. This is especially so in the medium term for those who have had a strategic presence in social media networks and 3 years. And do not forget that it is quite possible that those who did not receive this benefit may be the same they do not know how tomeasure the impact of social media in your business.

Time is eroding some of the defensive barriers and prejudices of many marketers and marketers against social media and the debate on the ROI of the same is paying off with a number of solid reasons, proven and provable why it is a bad idea to ignore. With the progressive digitization of society, we can bet that the benefits outlined here will become more extensive as companies implement integrated plans of social media marketing will have significant competitive advantages that more than offset the investment in time and human resources to perform . The Social Media Marketing functions as a medium-term strategy and its benefits are numerous and tangible: hopefully benefit our companies know they are on time now.