Social media is one of the best of many tools that marketers have for successful advertising. It’s shown great results in the past, and its use by advertisers has grown more and more each year, since the time when it started to become popular. It seemed like nothing could stop it from being the biggest thing in advertising for a long while, but now, according to eMarketer and the Association of National Advertisers, “growth has plateaued.” The time has come where social networks have been conquered by another platform in yearly growth. As you can already assume, the platforms that have outdone social media are mobile and viral video.
According to eMarketer’s chart, there has been much growth in usage of social media by advertisers since 2011, when 89% of surveyed marketers reported that they were focusing their attention on social media. In 2012, the number grew only slightly to 90%. Therefore, social media has not been tampered with too much, and things have pretty much remained steady for a year now. However, for mobile platforms, the numbers have also steadied, going from 75% to 74% in the year. The important thing is, though, that mobile still has much more room for growth than do social networks. “Usage held steady at around three-quarters of marketers between 2011 and 2012, but 17% of respondents to the ANA survey reported that this was their first year using mobile, and another 17% planned to start using it in the next year. Location-based apps, specifically, were expected to be taken up by 19% of marketers in the next year.”
Trumping both of the aforementioned platforms in growth is viral video. In 2007, the percentage of respondents was 25% and now in 2012, the number is 80%. Between the years, there has been a steady growth, showing that more and more marketers are becoming interested in the platform. Only 14% of viral video users have used the platform for under a year, while 10% say they plan on using it next year. Still, though, video now has less room for growth with marketers, leaving mobile as the likely platform for growth in the near future. As of right now, mobile is the big thing in advertising news, and it seems the most reliable of advertising platforms. Based on the charts, mobile still has room to grow, so it will stay a popular platform for some time.
Even though social networking has flattened out in growth, “eMarketer estimates advertisers will spend $3.63 billion in the US and over $4 billion more in the rest of the world on social networking sites this year. And that’s just paid ad spending.” It’s still doing well, but since mobile is already doing so well and still has so much room for growth, there’s a good chance it will have much more usage than social media in the future. Next year’s statistics will probably show mobile as being just about even with social media in growth, leaving another platform to start its rise.
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