Facebook is the most used social network by businesses for marketing purposes, and 67% of companies plan to further increase their Facebook marketing activities this year, according to recent data from Social Media Examiner.

The 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report was based on data from a survey conducted in January of 5,086 marketers. Some 65% of survey participants focus primarily on attracting consumers (B2C) and the other 35% primarily target businesses (B2B).

Below, key findings from the report.

Top Social Networks

Some 96% of B2C respondents say their business uses Facebook as a marketing tool, and 88% of B2B respondents say the same.

YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest are more popular with B2C marketers; LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and SlideShare are more popular with B2B marketers.

Some 66% of B2C marketers say Facebook is the most important social network for their business. LinkedIn ranks as the top network for B2B marketers, with 40% saying it is the most important platform.

Paid Channels

The most used paid media channel by respondents is Facebook ads (87% use), followed by Google ads (39%) and Twitter ads (18%).

Content Types

Visual content such as images/graphics is the most used content type by marketers on social media (74% say they use), followed by blog posts (68%).

Marketers rank blog posts as the top content type they share on social media (38% cite as most important). However, that's down from the 45% who ranked blogging as most important in 2015.

About the research: The 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report was based on data from a survey conducted in January of 5,086 marketers.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Ayaz Nanji

Ayaz Nanji is a digital strategist and a co-founder of ICW Media, a marketing agency specializing in content and social media services for tech firms. He is also a research writer for MarketingProfs. He has worked for Google/YouTube, the Travel Channel, AOL, and the New York Times.

LinkedIn: Ayaz Nanji

Twitter: @ayaznanji