The latest annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report was recently released by Social Media Examiner. The wide-​ranging study, based on a survey of more than 5,700 participants around the world, offers some insights into marketers’ shifting preferences surrounding platforms and content.

Most Popular Platforms

"Marketers remain active on a variety of social platforms, and their propensity to experiment with newer platforms seems to increase with their experience," MarketingCharts reports.

"For now, the most popular platform overall is of course Facebook, used by 94% of the respondent sample. Twitter (68%, down from 76% last year) is next, followed by LinkedIn (56%, down from 67%) and Instagram (54%, up from 44%)."

"Social channel use and importance continues to vary among B2C and B2B marketers. As expected, B2B marketers continue to favor LinkedIn to a greater degree than B2C marketers (81% and 44% using, respectively), with B2B marketers also much more likely to be using Twitter (75% vs. 65%)."

Video Still Has Room to Grow As A Content Type

"Turning to social media content types, marketers identified visual (85%) content as their most commonly used, demonstrating continued and rising popularity for this type of content. Blogging (66%) and videos (57%) follow, consistent with last year’s figures, with live video (28%) and podcasting (8%) further back."

And consumers are watching this content! 53% of AudienceSCAN survey respondent said they watched an online video or streamed video from their mobile devices in the past 6 months.

"This year for the first time visual content (42%) exceeded blogging (32%) as respondents’ most important type of content, though again there are differences by target audience. Those marketing to businesses still name blogging their most important content type, while for B2C marketers visual content is the most important."

Event promoters can utilize video: 36% of Mobile Streaming Video Watchers plan to attend concerts in the next 12 months, according to the new AudienceSCAN study results.

"When it comes to future content activities, video gains ground. Three in 4 plan to increase their use of video content in the near future, while just 12% will avoid video altogether."

Marketers should focus on comfort in their videos. The new AudienceSCAN survey found 58% of Mobile Streaming Video Watchers want to buy things that make them feel "comfortable" this year.

"Enthusiasm surrounding increased activities on video slightly exceed visuals (73%) to lead all content types in future efforts."

Comfort could be key for dentists and oral surgeons wanting to dive into video or increase video content marketing efforts. The new AudienceSCAN study showed 26.5% of Mobile Streaming Video Watchers plan to have dental fillings, crown, bridges or root canals this year. Show them how comfy you'll make them in videos!

"Finally, despite low adoption, 61% of marketers plan to increase their use of live video in the next year, marking a huge surge in interest from last year’s report."

AudienceSCAN data is available as part of a subscription to AdMall for Agencies, or with the SalesFuel API. Media companies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.