63% of respondents to a recent Printweek poll that asked ‘Is social media an effective marketing tool for your business?’ answered ‘No, it's overrated’ while 21% said it was effective, and the remaining 16% answered ‘Not yet, but it will get better’.
The same question was asked by Printweek in 2018 and, back then, 56% of respondents found it overrated with 22% finding it effective and 22% believing it would get better.
While the results of the new poll are largely in line with the results from seven years ago, there has nevertheless been an increase in readers finding social media ineffective for promoting their businesses.
The social media landscape is almost unrecognisable compared to 2018, with many businesses deciding to leave X in the wake of various changes introduced by Elon Musk, who bought the platform in 2022, while TikTok – established but barely known in the UK in 2018 – has skyrocketed in popularity and Bluesky and Threads have also become popular new platforms in some quarters.
A separate recent Printweek poll that asked ‘Which social media platforms does your business use?’ found 41% of respondents selecting LinkedIn, way ahead of Facebook and Instagram, which were tied on 17%, with X next on 13%.
Bluesky polled 4%, TikTok 3%, and Threads 2% while 3% selected Other, which could include YouTube.
Some industry figures, though, believe that many businesses are not making the most of the huge potential that social media has to offer if used in an effective and engaging manner.
Deborah Corn, founder of Girls Who Print and US-based print advocacy group Print Media Centr, told Printweek: “Businesses should use their social channels to attract, educate, engage, and communicate with the customers they want to do business with by sharing what those people care about.
“If your social media is about you, and not for your audience, there will be limited engagement and growth. The best way to have success with your defined goals is to look at content that did well, then lather, rinse, and repeat in unique and creative ways.”
Brendan Perring, general manager of the IPIA, stresses that being on the right platforms for their audience – and keeping their profiles updated – are also important factors for printers to consider with social media marketing.
He told Printweek: “When social media really first took off and manufacturing companies started to use it as a marketing platform, Facebook and Twitter – especially Twitter – were really the dominant forces, and mostly it was just people in our industry posting about what they were doing, or jobs they were producing, and it took off quite quickly.
“But it’s now evolved that LinkedIn is the dominant platform for our industry and where the vast majority of industry conversations take place, because it's business focused and, however LinkedIn have built their own algorithm, they’ve kept it quite free of political or abusive stuff.”
He added: “In terms of what people are using it for, I think the single biggest benefit is simply that social media, or LinkedIn if we focus on that, is a very democratic way of our industry getting its messaging, its products, services, benefits and effectiveness, in front of an audience that they otherwise would have to spend a lot of money to connect with.
“It’s a very accessible and cost-effective way for them to do that and it does expose our industry to print buying markets in a in a way that wasn’t possible before.”
A full analysis of this topic features in the briefing section in the current issue of Printweek magazine.
