Is the Era of Social Media Experimentation Over?

According to a new report from Econsultancy, it just might be, in the UK at least. The new State of Social 2011 report, which surveyed more than 1,000 businesses performing internet marketing, suggests that almost two thirds (64%) of businesses regard themselves as being beyond the "experimental phase" of using social media when compared to 54% a year ago.

Most businesses (78%) have retained the social media responsibility within their marketing departments, though some 29% distribute responsibility amongst a number of departments.

In terms of what they actually do, some 82% of companies use Facebook and 87% use Twitter, whilst 57% use business-oriented network LinkedIn. 69% use YouTube.

Over half of survey respondents (54%) now use Facebook for customer service - reacting to problems and answering questions - compared to just 29% last year, whilst 51% are using it to gather customer feedback. Half use Twitter for customer service, up from 35% last year.

The most popular type of original social media being used is the company blog, with 57% of respondent companies writing one, whilst 55% create or facilitate the creation of video. User generated content, that Holy Grail of social media campaigns, is used by 45% of businesses.

Of course, moving away from experimentation would imply businesses have also figured out how to measure and track social media efforts that other surveys would cast doubt on. However, it is good to see so many companies feeling that social media is now just another tool in their marketing arsenal, rather than something exotic and unintelligible that only deserves a token, experimental investment.