89% of marketers say that social media generates more business exposure

The Conversation Prism The Top Benefits of Social Media Marketing [Infographic]There are a million articles and blog posts out there that sing the praises of social media marketing — how social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest have had a major impact on lead generation and sales. If you follow my blog, you know that I’ve written a lot of them myself. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an easy way to to see some proof and hard numbers to back up the claims?

Social Media Examiner recently released its 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, which set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when, and why” of social media marketing. More than 3,000 marketers were surveyed, and their responses provide valuable insights into the benefits of social media marketing.

Wishpond, a maker of online marketing tools, created an infographic that nicely illustrates the study’s results. If you need to convince decision makers in your company that they should give social media marketing a try, keep this image on hand.

Here are the top benefits that companies are seeing from social media marketing:

• 89% of respondents said that social media marketing has generated more business exposure
• 64% saw lead generation increase by using social media 6 hours or less per day
• 69% of marketers use social media to gather marketplace intelligence
• 62% of marketers using social media for 2+ years reported a rise in search engine rankings
• 62% of businesses with 10 employees or less reported that social media has reduced marketing expenses