Meltwater has published a report revealing that the importance of social media is increasing among organisations as a result of the global economic uncertainty.
With brand awareness as a priority, more than half of the survey respondents (52%) stated that economic uncertainty has made social media a more important channel for their organisation.
While Facebook remains the most used social media platform for organisations, in terms of growth, the use of TikTok is rapidly increasing (30% vs. 16% last year). Additionally, 47% of respondents stated that they are planning to use TikTok in 2023. This statistic jumped to 56% when looking specifically at respondents in the United Kingdom & Ireland (UKI).
Samantha Monk, director of global enterprise solutions at Meltwater, said: “With current uncertainty in the economic climate, many brands are embracing innovation to get more from their marketing budgets. A thoughtful social media strategy allows marketers to gain and retain customer attention in a way this highly efficient, cost-effective, and measurable. We’re not surprised to see that respondents are looking to increase their brand awareness using these tools.”
In the UKI region, five channels continue to dominate social media marketing with 90% of respondents using Facebook, 93% using LinkedIn, and 89% using Twitter. 82% of respondents use Instagram while only 66% still use Youtube. Most notably, Twitter usage in this region is 23% higher than the Global average. Out of the 130+ countries surveyed, the report found that the UKI relies more on social media as a marketing tool compared to the overall results of other regions.
Jess Smith, marketing manager of Meltwater UKI, said: “While brand perception and brand awareness has always been integral, this trend seems to be increasing in 2023. We still believe that marketing professionals will face similar challenges such as lack of time or resources; however, social media is an exceptional tool for combating these challenges, which shows in the report. Investing in social media channels, particularly Tik Tok, is an effective method of creating a strong brand.”
While social media marketing has different purposes, the survey results have shown that increasing brand awareness (81%) and brand engagement (60%) are top of the agenda across all sectors (B2B, B2C & NGOs). However, while the top two social media goals appear to be brand-related, only 23% of organisations use brand reputation as a key metric.
In short, social media has proven itself to be an inevitable ingredient in the communication mix for organisations, irrespective of the field they operate in, and is only growing in importance during times of turbulence and uncertainties.
