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www.BoatingIndustry.com www.BoatingIndustry.com 14 | Boating Industry | May 2014 MONTHLY RESEARCH Increasing focus Forty-four percent of businesses said they plan to increase the time and money they spend on social media this year. While 54 percent said they are not changing the re- sources they allocate to social efforts, only 2 percent said they are decreasing their social media budget. That also outpaces the small business results from the VerticalResponse survey, which found that only 24 percent were increasing their social media budgets in 2014, while 13 percent were spending less. In the boating industry, the majority of com- social media is very important to their market- ing strategy in 2014 and 82 percent said it was at least somewhat important. Only 8 percent said it was not important at all. Facebook leads the way Just more than 85 percent of respondents said their company is using social media in its marketing efforts. Of that 15 percent that isn't using social media, many cited their concerns about the time it takes to do it or the return on investment. Most commonly, though, they said they didn't believe their customers were using social media. "Our customers are Baby Boomers, not teenagers," said one respondent. "Our de- mographic does not seem to be social media users," wrote another, in comments that were representative of those we received. That attitude, however, refl ects a common misconception of who is on social media. In the Pew Research Center's most recent study of social media use, released in Decem- ber 2013, the center found that 73 percent of American adults that use the Internet use at least one social media site regularly, with Facebook being used by 71 percent. By age, 79 percent of those 30 to 49, 60 percent of those 50 to 64 and even 45 percent of those over 65 are using Facebook. So it shouldn't be surprising that among marine industry businesses, Facebook is clearly the top choice. Of those companies that re- ported using social media, 95 percent are using Facebook, well ahead of the 61 percent using YouTube and 52 percent using Twitter. In some regards, those numbers match up fairly well with those across all small busi- nesses, but there are some signifi cant differ- ences. In a recent VerticalResponse survey, 88 percent of small businesses reported using Facebook and 67 percent said they were using Twitter. Only 35 percent are using YouTube. In that survey, more than 50 percent of re- spondents reported having a company blog, twice the level of marine industry companies. Facebook also dwarfs the competition when it comes to impact, with 61 percent of respondents in the Boating Industry sur- vey saying it is the most important social network for their company. YouTube, at 14 percent, was the only one selected by more than 10 percent. Only 25 percent of companies have a blog, but 8 percent – or more than a third of those who have one – said it was their most impor- tant tool. Six percent cited Google+ as their most important social media network and 5 percent selected LinkedIn. Most notably, although Twitter is used by 52 percent of respondents, only 2 percent said it was the most important outlet for them. As for photo sharing tools Pinterest and In- stagram, 20 percent of companies are using them, but not a single respondent chose either as their most important social media. New survey shows companies increasing focus on social sites BY JONATHAN SWEET Boating industry businesses are increasingly making social media a part of their market- ing strategy, the latest Boating Industry reader survey shows. We surveyed dealers, manufacturers, ma- rina owners, service providers and others via the Internet in March to fi nd out how they are using social media and how important it is to their businesses. More than a third of respondents said that Industry embracing social media CURRENT CONDITIONS March 59.2 February 46.5 FUTURE EXPECTATIONS March 68.5 February 64.3 BOATING INDUSTRY In this regular monthly feature, we track the optimism of Boating Industry readers to help us get a read on the industry. A reading of zero means equal numbers of people are experiencing or expect growth as contraction, so any number above zero is a positive. INDEX FACEBOOK TOP CHOICE Of those that use social media, percent that uses each outlet Facebook 95% YouTube 61% Twitter 52% LinkedIn 40% Google+ 31% Company blog 25% Instagram 20% Pinterest 20% Other 7% Percent that rank outlet as most valuable Facebook 61% YouTube 14% Company blog 8% Google+ 6% LinkedIn 5% Twitter 2% Other 4% P14x15-BI14MAY-Research.indd 14 4/17/14 10:25 AM