How Marketers Use Social Media – HubSpot’s State of the Industry

If you haven’t had a chance to review the results of HubSpot’s and SEOmoz annual industry survey on the state of SEO and internet marketing, I recommend you do.  There are some interesting stats available, but you’d probably want to listen to the On Demand Webinar to get a full understanding of the data.

However, I didn’t… on purpose.

HubSpot always does a great job of ”coupling” content types to make sure people understand the value of the data or insights they share.  However, most brands fail to see the need.  Instead, infographics get set around with little context and allow the reader to make some assumptions (both positive and negative).

I don’t mean to use HubSpot as an example, since they do provide the additional context around the infographic and it is designed to drive people into the On Demand Webinar, but what if there was no webinar?

Here’s what I learned from the infographic below:

• 44% of respondents classified themselves as advanced or experts in social media ability

Wow!  That seems high to me.  Of course, I don’t have any idea how these folks define “advanced” or “expert.”  Additionally, I don’t know how they define “social media.”  Interesting stat, but without context, it’s somewhat useless.

• Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social platforms

Yup.  Didn’t need a survey to tell me that one.  Google+ appearing in the #3 spot makes perfect sense to me and is not at all surprising if the survey was conducted to include marketers with strong SEO focus.  While many marketers still see SEO as a “specialty,” I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see these numbers change if the SEO filter was removed.  Additionally, LinkedIn in #5 would probably change if the majority of respondents were B2B.

• 76.9% of respondents use their blogs for content marketing

What are the other 23.1% doing?  All respondents were marketers, right?  Maybe “content marketing” was a confusing term for some.  Isn’t a blog content?  If it’s related to your brand, isn’t it probably some form of marketing?  Maybe I’m way off here.

The point is this… the information is useful and interesting, but the infographic isn’t where the value is.  It’s a teaser.  HubSpot does an excellent job of using the infographic to drive interest and compel you to listen to the webinar or download an eBook.  The calls to action are right there.

Unfortunately, this is a rarity.  Visualized data is jumping the shark… fast!  Without additional context, it can be useless at best and manipulated at worst.

So, for those 76.9% using blogs for content marketing, think long and hard about that content and how to couple it will additional relevant content and clear calls to action.  If you need help… don’t just look at HubSpot’s infographic, look at the whole experience.  You’ll learn more by following the breadcrumbs in the comments and exploring than you will just absorbing the image.

I’m going to go listen to the webinar now.