As younger customers and prospects spend more time on social media platforms, new research suggests that social search is growing in importance to marketers who are focused on optimization. HubSpot recently partnered with Brandwatch to publish the “Global Social...
As younger customers and prospects spend more time on social media platforms, new research suggests that social search is growing in importance to marketers who are focused on optimization.
HubSpot recently partnered with Brandwatch to publish the “Global Social Media Trends” report, and statistics indicated that the majority of marketers who are focused on social media marketing (89%) claim social search is important to their overall social strategy. Additionally, 87% believe that customers will primarily search for companies on social media, rather than search engines, in 2023.
About 36% of Gen Z (aged 18 to 24) already search for businesses on social media more often than via search engines. About 22% of Millennials (aged 25 to 34) said the same, and nearly 21% of Gen X (aged 35 to 54) stated that they also mainly search via social platforms.
Marketers’ Decreasing Investment in Social Media
Although research suggests that more younger customers are using social media platforms for their search inquiries, previous data indicates that marketers are scaling back their investment in this area due to degrading trust.
Integral Ad Science released its “Industry Pulse Report,” which looked at how marketers are investing in social media. Statistics suggested that most marketers (77%) believe that customers’ overall decreasing trust in major social media platforms will negatively impact their spend on social media within the next 12 months. Additionally, it will affect how much of their budget goes toward certain social media platforms.
About 34% expect to spend less on Instagram, and 28% intend to adjust their investment in TikTok. Approximately 49% will alter their spend on Facebook initiatives as a result of eroding customer trust, and 38% expressed the same sentiment in regards to Twitter.
