How the written word is exciting businesses more than visual marketing
You’d be forgiven for assuming that original written content could become something of an underdog when it comes social media marketing.
With unprecedented visual asset capacity and access, it's conceivable that businesses could be choosing to sideline blogs and written explainers for videos, infographics and memes. Not so – at least, not yet.
The latest Market Industry Report from Social Media Examiner (SME) finds that a whopping 81 per cent of business marketers plan on upping their use of original written content. Granted, the majority also want to improve their visual offering, but they don’t see it as quite so important at the moment.
Nearly 60 per cent of marketers said original written content was the most important kind when it came to attracting others to their business. Original visual assets were chosen by a comparatively paltry 19 per cent.
Blogging trumped YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn when it comes to focus for growth. The fact it’s only by a whisker highlights further the importance of all-round social media growth for firms. 68 per cent of businesses are increasing their use of blogging, making it the most important investment this year, with YouTube and Twitter a close joint-second, at 67 per cent.
92 per cent of the nearly 3,000 businesses surveyed said social marketing was crucial to their businesses. That’s up from 86 per cent just last year.
Unsurprisingly, original written content is considered more vital by business-to-business marketers than those working business-to-consumer: 65 per cent versus 52 per cent said it was the most important kind of marketing. Visual assets are considered of more worth by B2C marketers, too.
When it comes to platform of choice, Facebook is, by a country mile, the unrivalled winner. But, when asked to pick just one platform, LinkedIn overtook Facebook for B2B marketers, with Twitter and blogging seen as far more important, relatively speaking, than in the B2C space.