ANA: LinkedIn Is 'The' Social Net, Finds Ad Execs Extremely Active On All Platforms

LinkedIn, not Facebook, is the social network among advertisers, according to results of a survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers of their members’ personal social media habits.

While Facebook and LinkedIn tied in terms of the share (92%) of ANA members using them personally, they were far more connected with others via LinkedIn (an average of 507 connections) vs. Facebook (an average of 385 friends).

The third most popular social network among the ad execs, not surprisingly, was Twitter (71% and 232 followers), followed by Pinterest (55%, 39 followers), and Instagram (51%, 116 followers).

While the ANA members are more connected via LinkedIn, far more described Facebook as being their “favorite” social network. Forty-five percent of the ad execs described Facebook as their favorite, followed by 19% for LinkedIn, 16% for Instagram, 12% for Twitter, and 6% for Pinterest.

Compared to average Americans, the ad executives are much more voracious users of all forms of social media, especially for business-oriented network LinkedIn. More than four times as may ANA members (92%) use LinkedIn as compared with the average adult Internet users (22%), according to estimates from the Pew Research Center.

Ad execs are more aligned in their usage of Facebook (92% vs. 71% for the U.S. average), but skew much higher in usage of Twitter (71% vs. 18%), Pinterest (55% vs. 21%) and Instagram (51% vs. 17%).

ANA members also appear to be early adopters of emerging social media platforms, including Google+ (35%), Vine (12%) and Snapchat (10%).

The ad pros also described themselves as being heavy users of social media: 82% “somewhat” to “extreme” and 36% “very” to “extreme” active users.

While much of their social media behavior is personal, a significant amount of it is also part of their professional endeavors -- either personally or for their organizations and brands.

Twenty-one percent of the respondents said they actively blog for either personal or professional reasons. And 51% said they post content regularly about their company or their brands.
1 comment about "ANA: LinkedIn Is 'The' Social Net, Finds Ad Execs Extremely Active On All Platforms".
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  1. Nicole Baron Dietrich from Arizona State, November 25, 2014 at 12:39 a.m.

    It is not surprising at all that advertisers are heavy users of all the different social networks. I believe that in order to advertise, one must first know how to market themselves. Social networks are a great place to start. In my opinion, LinkedIn is the best place to connect with professionals and Facebook is the best place to connect with family and friends. Because Facebook is a more personal social platform, it wouldn’t seem appropriate to add others from your industry as your friend. I believe that LinkedIn offers people a chance to showcase their virtual resume and stay in touch with other professionals. Most people choose to keep their Facebook profiles private, whereas LinkedIn is primarily an open forum. I was glad when one of my courses at Arizona State required me to create a LinkedIn as an assignment. Since doing so, I have received numerous offers and made connections with classmates, coworkers, recruiters and more. There are many reasons to believe that LinkedIn, and all social media sites, will only become more popular among advertisers. It is crucial for them to stay aware of what their competition is doing. Staying active online will help ad companies know what is trending at the time, and it is a great place for them to share their media and content with other users. My prediction is that Facebook will become less popular in the coming years and we will see even more of a rise in LinkedIn.

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