Two brand-new studies by HubSpot and Edison Research provide fresh insights on these important questions. Consider these five findings as you enhance your social media and blogging strategies.

#1: More frequent blog posts bring greater traffic and leads

C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley like to say that starting a blog is like having a baby. You can’t put it back and you have to keep feeding it. The question is how often do you need to feed your blog to get real results?

HubSpot found in their 2011 State of Inbound Marketing report that a vast majority of bloggers post once per week, with a significant 29% only posting monthly or less.

No matter how nutritious the food is, no doctor would recommend feeding a baby weekly or less. Mike Stelzner acknowledges that most content only has a shelf life of around 72 hours. Read about this in his new book Launch.

As it turns out, businesses seeing significant growth have also discovered they need to feed their blogs more frequently.

There’s a strong correlation between how frequently a blog posts and the amount of traffic generated. In fact, businesses that post daily will generate 5 times more traffic than those that post weekly or less.

The likelihood of acquiring a customer through your blog increases significantly the more frequently you post. Note that posting multiple times per day gets 15% greater results than just posting daily. Of course, you need to understand your audience’s appetite for content before you start posting multiple times per day.

While getting one customer through your blog is great, it will be far better when you start seeing consistent leads. HubSpot found blogs that post daily generate 4 times more leads than those that post weekly or less.

#2: A steady library of blog posts grew leads and traffic better

Over time, a well-fed blog will outperform other blogs. This is evidenced by the impact of blog size on traffic and lead generation. (Note: By blog size, I don’t mean the size of the company, but the number of blog posts accumulated over time.)

HubSpot found that blogs that have accumulated at least 51 posts see 53% more traffic than blogs with 20 to 50 posts. Additionally, blogs with more than 100 posts see 3 times the traffic, while those with over 200 posts see nearly 4.5 times the results. (Special thanks to Melissa Miller of HubSpot for this exclusive graphic.)

The size of your blog will also affect your monthly leads. Your business will profoundly benefit if you accumulate at least 52 blog posts.

#3: More Twitter followers = more leads

As Elijah Young reminded us last month, all Twitter followers aren’t created equal. So, if you have 1,000 spam accounts following you, there won’t be much measurable benefit to your business. But don’t let that excuse you from trying to grow your following. You may be missing out on some real results!

HubSpot found that businesses with over 1,000 followers saw 6 times more traffic than businesses with 25 or fewer followers.

Additionally, those businesses with over 1,000 followers saw 5 times more leads than those with 1 to 25 followers.

You may have questions about the value of a Twitter strategy, but know that 20 million Americans are on Twitter (half between the ages of 18 and 34, according to Edison Research) and these are the people more likely to influence public opinion about your brand than the other 90% of the population.

#4: Bigger Facebook fanbases mean better results

Edison Research recently found that Facebook is the one social media site that people allow to influence their buying decisions, with 24% listing it as their first choice. Of course, it’s not Facebook itself but the people on Facebook who influence those decisions. That’s why it’s so important to grow a strong and active fanbase.

HubSpot found that the size of your Facebook reach has significant impact on your traffic and leads. For instance, businesses able to grow a fanbase of 501 to 1,000 fans have 3.5 times more traffic than those with 1 to 25 fans. Moreover, businesses with over 1,000 fans had 22 times more traffic.

Additionally, the size of your Facebook fanbase will dramatically impact how many leads you receive. Businesses with 501 to 1,000 fans saw 4 times as many leads as those with 1 to 25 fans and businesses with over 1,000 fans saw 12 times more leads.

#5: Social demographics are growing

Tom Webster of Edison Research recently published a study that gives some fresh insight into how Americans are using social media.

In the Social Media Marketing Industry Report, we made the claim that social media has gone mainstream. Edison’s report proves it. They discovered that 52% of Americans over the age of 12 have at least one social media account and 51% of all Americans are on Facebook.

What’s more significant is that 46 million Americans are on social media sites multiple times per day. These are the influencers and potential clients we all want to reach.

These habitual social networkers tend to be young and female. In fact, 68% of these active networkers are between the ages of 12 and 34. Depending on your product or service, this information could help you better target your customers online.

The last thing to note about frequent social networkers is that they’re nearly twice as likely to be using mobile devices. Make sure to see what it’s like for your customers to engage you on their mobile devices.

Habitual social networkers are also 50% more likely to access social networks via their mobile phones.

Go generate some leads!

In many ways, this research confirms what many experts have been saying, but now you can see the reasons in black and white. If you want to generate leads through social media, try blogging more frequently and growing your reach—all with an understanding of your target audience.

For some great ideas on how to generate leads through social media, refer to Debbie Hemley’s article, 26 Ways to Use Social Media to Generate Leads.

What do you think? I’d love to hear what you think about this research. Leave your comments in the box below.

What’s New This Week?

MeetUp Launches Perks Feature for Small Businesses: MeetUp makes it easy for people to get together, and now with MeetUp Perks, businesses can “easily offer membership Perks to MeetUp groups in a simple, self-serve way” and become their sponsors.   “MeetUp Perks is not a daily deal or a coupon service.” They hope to help businesses “find local community they can support for a long time.”  Find out more here.  This looks interesting.  What do you think?

MeetUp Perks costs $5 per month for each MeetUp group you sponsor and you only pay for groups that accept your Perks.

Twitter Announces Services in Korean: Twitter is now available in 7  languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Korean) and continues to develop its services to its large international audience.

With 70% of its users outside the U.S., Twitter needs to adapt its services for other markets too.

Eyeka Launches in the U.S., so Big Brands Can Crowd-source Creative Feedback:  Eyeka is a consumer engagement community for brands and agencies. What do you think about Eyeka?

On Eyeka, consumers give feedback for free to brands and agencies.

Here are two recent studies to note:

eMarketer Predicts U.S. Marketers Will Spend $3.08 billion on Social Media Advertising This Year: This follows the trend as Facebook ad revenues more than doubled last year.  This is something marketers should be aware of this year.

MarketsandMarkets Says World Mobile Applications Market Worth $25 Billion (U.S.) by 2015: The mobile app market continues to grow. Does your business have a mobile marketing plan?

Here’s one more new social media tool worth a look:

Urtak: This is a simple tool to ask your audience Yes/No questions. It’s easy to add to your website to learn more about your audience and you can also use it on Facebook. Try it out here: Social Media News

And don’t miss this:

Social Media Examiner’s Blogging Success Summit 2011: Starting February 1, this online mega-conference will help you use your blog for business and profit.

What social media news caught your interest? What do you think of the other news items this week? Please share your comments below.

#1: Social Media Engagement Big Challenge for Many Businesses (Deloitte)

Survey results from a recent Deloitte study (2009 Tribalization of Business Study), point to some key challenges that organizations are facing as they move toward integrating online communities into their social media strategy.

Here are the top three areas respondents identified as obstacles:

• Keeping visitors engaged:  30%
• Getting people to join:  24%
• Encouraging return visits to the online community:  21%

In addition, the majority of respondents agreed that the following are key business outcomes for their online communities:

• Increase word-of-mouth:  38%
• Increase customer loyalty:  34%
• Increase brand awareness:  30%

#2: Social Media Used as a Discovery Tool by 18% of Online Population (Nielson)

With the recent integration of Twitter and Facebook with Microsoft’s Bing, there is no doubt that social media has become a top player in the world of search.  A recent study by Nielson Company examined the relationship between social media and user search options.  The report compared social sites to search engines and portals like Yahoo! Of those surveyed, 18% reported social media sites as core to finding new information.

Jon Gibs, VP Media Analytics, reports, “While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure. And as social media usage continues to increase I can only expect this figure to grow.”

It is speculated that the amount of information on the web, especially on social sites, contributes to the increase in content discovery on these sites.  The report goes into much more detail and is worth a read.

#3: Businesses Slow to Incorporate Social Media Into Practice

Although numerous recent reports show how businesses plan to incorporate social media into their 2010 marketing mix, a recent study by BIA/Kelsey reports that many small- to medium-sized businesses are slow to incorporate the strategies into their plans today.

When asked about their current social media experiences, results showed many businesses are slow to adopt social media:

• Have used Twitter to market in the last 12 months:  9%
• Have used social sites in the past 12 months:  23%
• Have incorporated video into their website: 16%

In addition, according to the survey results, adoption of social media by small- and medium-sized business is more prevalent among younger businesses:

• Businesses 3 years or younger: 16% report using Twitter
• Businesses 11+ years:  2% report using Twitter

What are your thoughts? What effect, if any, do the constant changes and shifts in social media have on your overall marketing strategy?

#1: By 2010, 26 Million (1 in 7) U.S. Adults Will Use Twitter Monthly

A new study by eMarketer surpasses their previous estimates of Twitter usage. The study, conducted just last month, found the following: “In 2009, there will be 18 million U.S. adults who access Twitter on any platform at least monthly. That represents a 200% increase over 2008 levels. Usage will reach 26 million U.S. adults in 2010, a further 44.4% climb.”

Earlier this year, eMarketer reported more conservative usage numbers, stating that there were indications of large numbers of users abandoning the site shortly after signing up and many others only using it sporadically. However, they recently revised their estimates because “recent data shows healthy—and growing—percentages of U.S. Internet users adopting the popular microblogging platform,” according to eMarketer senior analyst, Paul Verna.

Twitter is not the only social networking site to report record usage numbers. In September, Facebook officially hit the 300 million-user mark, making the social networking site nearly as large as the U.S. population.

#2: Americans Spend 17% of Online Time on Social Media Sites

As popular social media platforms continue to grow their numbers of users, it is logical to conclude that Americans are spending more time on social networking sites. According to a recent study by The Nielsen Company, 17% of the time spent online was at social networking sites (an increase from 6% in August 2008).

Among those paying the most attention to this recent trend are advertisers. Online ad spending increased by 119% to $108 million in August 2009.

#3: In 2010, Over 50% of Marketers Will Be Using Social Media

Marketers are becoming even more aware that social media marketing must be a key component of their media buy strategy. This was recently affirmed in the findings of the “2010 Media Planning Intelligence Study” by the Center for Media Research, which examined the likelihood of marketers including social media in their 2010 marketing plan. Over half (56.3%) of marketers stated that social media would “realistically” be part of that mix.

The top 5 most popular media for the 2010 marketing spend were as follows:

• Email (56.8%)
• Social networks (56.3%)
• Keyword search (49.7%)
• Radio (42.2%)
• Magazines (42.1%)

In addition, 57% of media buyers reported they will buy non-traditional media, including online, display video, search, mobile and event sponsorships, while 43% reported they will buy the more traditional media, including TV, print and radio.

#4: Blogs Most Useful Social Media Tool, Say 51% of Businesses

McKinsey Quarterly’s “Global Survey” examined companies’ overall assessment of the value of different social media technologies. As reviewed by eMarketer, “When it came to customer-related benefits, blogs were the most useful tool, bringing measurable benefits to 51% of responding companies worldwide. That was followed by video-sharing and social networking at 48% each, and RSS feeds at 45%.”

In addition to these findings, the top three reported benefits of Web 2.0 marketing included:

• Increased marketing effectiveness (52%)
• Higher customer satisfaction (43%)
• Reduced marketing costs (38%)

#5: 75% of Marketers Plan to Increase Social Media Use in 2010

According to a recent survey by virtual events provider Unisfair, marketers are most focused on attracting and keeping customers in 2010 and they plan to use social media to make this happen. A few interesting factoids from the Unisfair findings:

The 3 leading marketing priorities in 2010 according to U.S. marketers:

• New customer acquisition (60%)
• Customer retention and engagement (48%)
• Thought leadership (45%)

The top 5 marketing tactics U.S. marketers planned to increase in their 2010 marketing mix:

• Social media (75%)
• Web search/SEO (51%)
• Email campaigns (49%)
• Virtual events (48%)
• Online advertising (28%)

The study also asked marketers to rank the value of social media platforms. LinkedIn came in on top at 26%, Facebook at 23% and Twitter at 17%.

What are your thoughts? How might these study findings impact your future social media activities? I’d love to hear from you.