Social Media Training for Marketers

More than a quarter (27%) of Facebook users plan to spend less time on the site this year, with 38% of those ages 18-29 planning to cut back, according to a new study by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

28% of users say the social network has become less important to them than it was a year ago, and 34% say the amount of time they are spending on Facebook has decreased over the past year.

Only 28% saw their budget increase this year, while 69% stayed the same. Prospects were only slightly better for 2013, with 62% of budgets remaining static

top salaries, which hover above $125,000. A lot of people are still figuring out social media. Only 13% describe their efforts as advanced. Slightly more than half agreed with the statement, “We keep our heads above water, but not by much.”

“Ownership” of social media is murky, and the question may even become passé as numerous departments within organizations jump in

That all makes sense given separate results from the same survey indicating that 71% of company marketers plan to increase their digital marketing budgets this year.

Content marketing edges SEO (65%) and email marketing for engagement/retention (also 65%) as the most popular digital channel tabbed for a budget increase.

Other digital channels and disciplines to get a budget hike this year include social media investment (for engagement/retention – 62%), mobile marketing (for acquisition – 61%), and social media investment (for acquisition – 61%).

Twitter not only was best for generating leads, but it also showed the highest conversion rates. Compared to the 1.22% average for social media (which was below the 1.6% average for all site sources), Twitter had a 78% higher conversion rate (2.17%), easily outperforming LinkedIn (0.8%) and Facebook (0.74%). That’s despite LinkedIn having the highest engagement rate by pageviews per visit (2.5), and Twitter the least (1.5).