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And the Winner for Most Important Social Media Channel is ...

 

.

[Drumroll] ... Blogs!

Company blogs took the top spot in HubSpot's recent 2010 State of Inbound Marketing report, which surveyed marketing professionals about the importance of various social media channels. The other rated nominees included Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. in order of importance to inbound marketing strategies.

The Importance of Social Media Channels

Up from 2009, 85% of users ranked company blogs as "useful" or better this year, showing increased preference for creating conversations around the industry and interacting personally with customers. Twitter came in 2nd place with a huge leap to 71%, and Facebook and YouTube followed suit with increased ratings.

Social news/browsing sites Digg and StumbleUpon dropped rankings over the past year, while MySpace completely fell off the map with only 10% of users rating it as "useful" or better.

Other key findings of the 2010 State of Inbound Marketing report:

  • Over 40% of customers using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and company blogs have generated a customer from that channel.
  • 88% of companies have either increased or maintained their inbound marketing budget since last year.


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Posted by Roshni Mirchandani on Thu, Mar 04, 2010 @ 10:30 AM

COMMENTS

Apparently Blogging isn't just for "techies" and hippies on the web anymore. GO BUSINESS BLOGGER'S GO!

posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 10:40 AM by Jill Fratianne


I am glad I joined the blogger circle!! It's so much fun! I started 2 weeks ago, so I haven't been able to see the "results". However, right now I am having so much fun with it I am not worried! I knew I had a lot to say (you could ask my friends), but this is so therapuetic!! Love blogging!!

posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 11:32 AM by Vanessa


Not very surprising at all. Interesting to note the two sharing sites are decreasing in popularity. I try to drive most of the traffic back to either my site or the blog. 
 
Mark

posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 1:37 PM by Mark Kilens


All the information I have collected so far with regards to SEO and social marketing all state the same thing. Keep a relevant blog, update it, and post links to your website for further info. Thanks for the great article. 
For More Free Website Information Click Here

posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 1:52 PM by freesiteinfo


As some of the above commenters have stated, it's obvious a blog that's controlled by you on your own server is the winner for most important social media channel :)  
 
First off, you're not limited in the amount of characters (ala Twitter) you can post so you can get your point across. Secondly, if you're monitoring your statistics, one can adjust the interface for useability, thus fostering an environment for more interaction. We can go on an on of the advantages of a blog versus every other platform.. 
 
Just think of this..if the other social media properties decide to shut you down, they can.. 
 
Without your own blog, you're left in the dust :( 
 
Hmm, now I should have a blog on my own site eh? haha ;P 
 
Will see you in the blog-o-sphere soon! 
 
Mark

posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 2:44 PM by Internet Marketing Specialists


Interesting stats! Although not surprising, twitter and facebook make sharing easy for the masses and blogginh is the ultimate self expression for your business. I still see though many businesses committing social network faux pas, so i suggest that if you want to have success with your business in a social network, use it actively as a person too! Having an understanding of how the "locals" use it will benefit your business. 
Serena : )

posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 4:18 PM by Serena Star Leonard


I think it is finally a sign that people actually get that blogs work! 
 
There was a huge lag in the general public's view that blogs were useful. 
I still here it today - "Oh I don't have the time for that sort of thing"

posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 at 6:00 PM by Paul Viau


Great data to support the power of Blogging. 
 
 
 
Are these stats broken down to results to show how B2B versus B2C companies responded? Thanks!

posted on Friday, March 05, 2010 at 11:11 AM by Jennifer Stalford


This is great news! Our company is currently working on increasing our number of blog entries and presence on Twitter. It's good to know we're focusing on the right things!

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 11:39 AM by Melanie Feyerherm


Comments have been closed for this article.