Study Social Media Switzerland 2018: More strategy, budgets, influencers

Today, social media is one of the central instruments of organizational communication. Nine out of ten companies are active, and more and more of them no longer just experimentally, but with a strategic approach. Youtube tops the list, ahead of Facebook. It is followed by Twitter, the business network Linkedin and, new in the top five, the image platform Instagram. Pictorial and fast-paced services are on the rise, as are chat platforms such as Whatsapp and live streaming. A large proportion of respondents stated that they promote content reach with advertising. In general, the cost-benefit ratio is assessed more positively than in previous studies.

The Bernet ZHAW Study Social Media Switzerland is published for the fourth time after 2012, 2013 and 2016. Guido Keel, Scientific Director of the study at the Institute of Applied Media Science at ZHAW: "The new study shows a professionalization. More strategic groundwork, budgets for implementation and a more positive perception of the cost-benefit ratio are aspects of it." Irène Messerli, co-author Bernet Relations sees a need for action in the overall view: "Most companies have worked out strategies, but only half for the entire company. There is a need for action in the inclusion of important players outside marketing and communications, such as sales, customer service or internal communications."

Compared to previous studies, there has been an increase in resources for social media channels: Around 80 percent of all respondents have a budget or will soon be speaking funds. There is also more investment in paid reach: A majority of organizations regularly extend the reach of their content via social ads. 40% of respondents use this option on a weekly or even daily basis, a clear majority of them on Facebook.

Involvement of influencers - still little internal training

Personnel resources still flow primarily into creating and managing content. Little is invested in internal training and continuing education. This is surprising in that the inclusion of internal and external influencers has already been used by a majority of companies: 61 percent of respondents have already implemented corresponding measures or are planning to do so in the next few months. Activities relating to social media monitoring have been stepped up: four-fifths of the organizations have developed a systematic approach to this. The cost-benefit ratio is rated more positively than in previous studies. For 45 percent each, the benefit is higher than the effort or they balance each other out, 10% are undecided. Skeptics see difficulties and obstacles in data security, a lack of trust among target groups, loss of control, the potential for escalation through collective outrage, and a trend toward more "offline" communication. The respondents expect increasing importance, especially with regard to use in personnel marketing.

The most important findings at a glance:

Engagement stagnates - only a few newbies left

The proportion of organizations involved in social media has stagnated at a high 89%. There has been a significant increase in those already highly experienced users who have been using the channels for more than six years. Around half are in the process of acquiring a certain amount of experience (one to a maximum of six years of use). Only a small minority are new users. The few who are absent cited loss of control, difficulty with organization or the lack of convincing concepts as reasons.

More and more strategic

Previous research showed a lack of strategic approach. There has been significant catching up here. 90% already have written guidelines, but around half of them only for areas or projects. NPOs and non-listed companies in particular still operate without a strategy. There is also room for improvement in the cross-company involvement of various departments - social media activities are usually assigned to Marketing (76%) or Communications (75%). HR, service and sales are also involved.

Visibility, reach, proximity

The most important goal in the use of social media is still to increase the visibility of one's own company. Virtually equal in the respondents' assessment are the goals of creating trust via social media and improving one's own image.

It is striking that political organizations and administrations primarily seek direct contact with customers and citizens via social media and also use social media as a contact medium for communicating with journalists.

Strongest growth: chat services, live streaming

Facebook and YouTube jointly topped the list of most-used platforms in 2016 - now YouTube is just ahead. The trend toward image-based content and directly experienceable and fast-paced content via live streaming and chat networks is clearly visible. Engagement on Instagram and the business network Linkedin has continued to grow significantly - respondents also said they wanted to learn more via both platforms.

Paid presence: More and more ads

The biggest change from previous research is in the use of paid social media space. Previously, this was merely experimented with - today, a majority of companies and organizations already pay for their reach. The use is broad: Not only commercial companies, but also NPOs, government agencies, and political organizations or associations are talking budgets for securing a presence. The frequency of the use of funds underscores its importance: four out of ten organizations place advertisements on the social web on a weekly basis.

Engagement: content, strategy, dialog

The respondents rated the creation and management of content as the most important activity related to the use of social media. Conceptual design and strategic development as well as dialog maintenance have gained somewhat in importance. Evaluation, monitoring and technical issues receive significantly less attention. According to the survey, the least investment is made in internal training and continuing education. There is likely to be a need for action here as development continues.

Resources: More budgets and external support

Until now, organizations often expected social media activities to take place within existing budgets. Today, 70 percent of all companies have specific budgets, up from 30 percent in 2013, with resources also being outsourced to external partners, primarily PR and communications agencies. Specialized social media agencies have lost importance; they were named most often just two years ago. Surprisingly, content editing is outsourced the most, ahead of ad placement and technology.

Influencers everywhere: internal and external opinion leaders

Personalities who comment on a company or its offerings and services - whether as internal employees or external opinion leaders - are called influencers. More than half of the organizations surveyed already work with influencers - administrations and political organizations rather with internal ones, companies with internal and external ones.

More monitoring and evaluation

Four out of five companies systematically follow social media and carry out monitoring of social media platforms. Four years ago, it was still around half. So awareness of the importance of listening has increased. Mostly, organizations track social media activity with free monitoring applications. Organizations still measure success on social media mainly by fans, likes, followers and user numbers. Future plans include greater consideration of influence on public discourse and more sentiment analysis.

Future: Strategy and recruitment

Respondents see the use of social media for HR marketing and the expansion of social media strategy across all departments and divisions as the two activities whose importance will increase the most over the next two years.