Optix Solutions is an award-winning online marketing solutions and web design company based in Exeter, specialising in providing innovative services and consultancy to some of the country’s leading companies and organisations. We have been working with Social Media, both internally and externally, since its marketing potential first emerged and have been providing bespoke online solutions and Social Media consultancy to clients for the past three years. If you would like more information on the Optix Solutions Social Media Survey 2010 contact Amanda Parsons on 01392 667766. The survey can be downloaded at http://www.optixsolutions.co.uk/social-media-survey-2010/ Optix Solutions Social Media Policy Generator can be downloaded at http://www.optixsolutions.co.uk/free-social-media-policy-generator/

2. Contents
Foreword Investment in Social Media
Summary of findings
Social Media Policy & Strategy
The Power of Social Media Conclusions
Thoughts from Alastair Banks A quick guide to getting started with
Market growth and trends Social Media
How Social Media is being used Top tips from Like Minds
around the World
Why we created this survey Legal considerations
The Results A look to the future
Investment in Social Media Lets keep the conversation going
Use of Social Media About Optix Solutions
Who filled out this survey

3. Foreword
We've gone from thinking of Social Media as "gee whiz"
and we're into the "okay, now what?" phase. Whether
you're ready or not, your buyers and customers are
using Social Media tools and networks to talk about you
and your products. It's time to get a bit more
understanding on what this means for you.
The Internet of 10 years ago or even 5 years ago isn't
what you're facing today. Now, it's a matter of real-time
information streaming rapid fire through loose social
ties. More sectors of society than ever before are
embracing these tools to build relationships, to express
interests, and to pursue information. For the first time in
the web's history, search is losing ground to social
search: asking friends.
This is the new radio. This is the new phone. Learn how
to engage, and seek your own success today.
Chris Brogan
President of New Marketing Labs
Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. He works with
large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR
through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile
technologies.
http://chrisbrogan.com http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan http://facebook.com/dotchrisbrogan
3

4. Summary of findings
Top 3 reasons respondents use Was Social Media originally part of
Social Media. (multiple choice question) your current Online Marketing
budget?
To retain our
existing customer
To find new No
base
customers
70%
30%
60% 73%
Yes
45%
Top 5 Social Media platforms
To monitor what respondents spent up to an
is being said about hour a day on. (multiple choice question)
our brand
LinkedIn
Facebook
Do you have a formal Social
Media Strategy?
73% Blog
Yes 57%
68% 37%
32% 45% 57%
No
YouTube Twitter
4

5. Summary of findings
Other Online Marketing channels
used. (multiple choice question) While the great majority of respondents see
Social Media as a means to retain and grow a
Search Engine customer base, almost half have no measure of
Optimisation
Email Marketing return on investment (ROI) against the social
platforms they use.
Almost 70% have no formal Social Media
70% strategy in place, despite significant concerns
78% Online PR over the lack of time, resources and knowledge
required to use Social Media effectively.
It is clear that Social Media is being used as part
58% 60% of a multi-touch marketing strategy for
52% businesses. However, with the majority of
respondents not measuring ROI or having a
strategy in place - we have concerns that they
Direct Mail Blog are not capable of harnessing the best of these
Marketing tools and ensuring success.
On average 47% of those
Top 3 barriers for implementation of surveyed do not measure
Social Media strategies. (multiple choice question) their Social Media ROI
71% 50% 43%
47%
Lack of Unsure of ROI
Lack of knowledge
resource time or value
5

6. The Power of Social Media
Until very recently Google was the biggest referrer of traffic to websites but the increasing use of
Social Media is beginning to take it over. In May of 2010 social networks accounted for 11.9% of
all UK internet visits, while search engines accounted for 11.3%. (Source: Hitwise June 2010)
Before falling foul of privacy concerns, Burger King’s “Sacrifice ten friends” Facebook campaign
went viral and resulted in the loss of over 230,000 friends.
Social Media sites enable users to participate in and build communities and networks of people
who share similar interests and activities. This is possible through a plethora of tools and
features, including discussion forums, blogs, videos, photos, instant messaging, etc. These sites
quickly become part of the day-to-day life of their users, who develop a rapport with fellow
members.
IBM’s network of blogs allow staff with different expertise to give insights into the latest
developments and products across this multinational and multilayered organisation.
You can encourage interaction with Social Media networks and applications on your website via
social bookmarks, allowing your customers to share information from your site with their
communities and networks. In order to reap the rewards of this opportunity, you need to regulary
engage with and contribute to these platforms.
As you are dealing with an essentially social process, it is important that you get the right
balance between promoting a product and engaging.
6

7. Thoughts from Alastair Banks
Harnessing the enormous potential of Social Media is
both the biggest online opportunity and challenge for
businesses across all sectors.
As a co-director of one of the South West’s leading Web
Design and Online Marketing agencies, I’ve seen first
hand how rapidly the internet has changed.
Social Media is the latest technological advance that
organisations are striving to get to grips with, but it is
very different from traditional and online marketing
tools. This process requires developing skills around
engaging with existing and potential customers,
establishing relationships with them and creating
opportunity by listening and understanding what it is
that they look for from your company or brand.
Alastair Banks
Director of Optix Solutions
Alastair grew up in Essex before moving to study in Exeter, where he helped found Optix Solutions
with James Dawkins while still at University. He now runs three successful businesses.
Alastair believes in practicing what he preaches. His own blog http://iambanksy.co.uk is made up of
articles and advice based on personal experience covering all aspects of starting and growing
a business. He has recently gone back to his roots, starting a mentoring scheme for promising
undergraduate students from Exeter University.
http://twitter.com/banksy6 http://iambanksy.co.uk http://optixsolutions.co.uk
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8. Market growth and trends
About 2 million UK workers are spending at Facebook accounts for 1 in 6 UK page views and
least 1 hour each day on social networks is the second most visited website in the UK. In
while at work. (Source: Bizreport, Aug 2010) July 2010 it accounted for 7.14% of all UK Internet
visits and over half (54%) of all visits to social
networking websites. (Source: Hitwise, Aug 2010)
2 Million 55% 10% 6% 1 in 6 33%
10% of workers 6% spend at least
55% of the UK’s work 33% of workers spend
claim social networking an hour on social
force access Social Media at least 30 minutes on
while at work makes networks.
at work. social networks.
them more productive.
More than 700,000 local businesses have
YouTube now serves more than active pages on Facebook. (Source: Facebook,
1 billion videos per day. Jan 2010)
(Source: YouTube Blog Oct 2009)
67%
15 million 700k
Businesses with blogs
generate 67% more
online leads than
There are now 15 million LinkedIn users on the
1 billion businesses without blogs.
European continent. This site has grown by
(Source: Hubspot Apr 2010)
around 40%, now with over 70 million users
globally. (Source: Econsultancy blog Jul 2010)
8

9. How Social Media is being used around the World
USA Unique Audience
127 Million
United Kingdom
24.2 Million 3.7 Million
46.5 Million
2.9 Million 2.7 Million
19.7 Million
2.1 Million
Italy
13.4 Million 11.3 Million
16.4 Million 1.9 Million
Spain
15.2 Million 1.4 Million 1 Million
Brazil
0.9 Million
11.6 Million 11.4 Million ; 6.6 Million
28.7 Million 2 Million
Australia
8.7 Million 1.4 Million
1.8 Million
5 Million 5.9 Million
1.7 Million 1.3 Million 1.1 Million
0.8 Million
Facebook Badoo
MySpace UOL Comunidades
Twitter Orkut
Flickr iG Comunidades
LinkedIn ; Tuenti Data taken from Econsultancy: Social Media Statistics Compendium 9

10. Why we created this survey
We aren’t short of Social Media success stories.
Who hasn’t heard of the millions Dell has made
through Twitter?
Businesses throughout the UK are keen to
harness Social Media for their own similar
success stories.
This Survey was created to help form an
understanding of how organisations throughout
the UK are using the various platforms, what
return they are yielding and gain an insight into
their future plans for Social Media.
A foundation, we hope, for your own Social
Media success.
10

11. The
Results
11

12. Investment in Social Media
How much has your Social Media How much of your monthly budget do
training cost to date? you allocate to Social Media?
We are not using More than £500 We are not using
Social media Social media
More than
7%
£500
12% 18%
7%
Under
£100-500 £500
15% I am self 75%
taught
£0-99
56%
10% There is no denying how cost effective Social
Media has been for respondents, with the
majority professing to be self taught and
investing less than £500 a month.
Top 5 Social Media sites respondents spent up to an hour a day on.
(multiple choice question)
LinkedIn, up to
Facebook, up to Twitter, up to YouTube, up to
an hour a day Blog, up to an
an hour a day an hour a day an hour a day hour a day
73% 57% 57% 45% 36%
12

13. Use of Social Media
How long have you been using Social Media as
part of your marketing strategy?
More than 2 years
10% 6 Months to Over 50% of respondents had
1 year and 6 1 year started using Social Media within
months to 2 years
the past 12 months of partaking
31% in the Survey.
5%
Only 10% of respondents had
1 year to 1 year
been using Social Media for more
6 months
than 2 years.
15%
13% 26% We are not using
Social media
Less than 6 months
Top 5 Social Media sites respondents plan to use
More than half of respondents over the next 12 months. (multiple choice question)
engage with and/or use
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
Blogs as part of their Social Blog
Media strategy.
Facebook
Despite being the second 64%
largest search engine in the 90%
world, less than 50% of 67%
respondents used YouTube.
47% 73% LinkedIn
YouTube
13

14. Use of Social Media
What type of business are you?
B2C
Whilst the majority of respondents saw
10% Social Media’s positive potential in
finding new customers and retaining
existing ones, it was also seen as a
monitoring tool, both of feedback on
own brand and to keep informed of
competitors.
30% Almost 10% of respondents admitted to
introducing Social Media because their
47% B2B
competitors had done so.
B2B & B2C
Top 5 reasons respondents were using Social Media. (multiple choice question)
To retain our
existing customer To find new To monitor what To keep ahead
is being said about of our To monitor our
base customers
our brand competitors competitors
73% 60% 45% 42% 36%
14

15. Who filled out this survey?
The most popular sectors for
respondents were Media,
What sector do you work within? Creative, Marketing, PR and
Advertising, followed closely by
Management, Non Profit, IT,
Accountancy 3% Recruitment and Retail.
7% IT 51% of respondents reported
Legal 4% having less than 100 customers,
while 49% reported having over
Media, Creative
13% 100 customers, reflective of the
power Social Media has to
Marketing, PR 22% engage with audiences of all
Advertising
6% sizes.
Recruitment
Sports & 3%
Leisure
4%
Engineering & How many customers do you
Manufacturing
have?
8%
Management
11-100
8% Non Profit, Charities 0-10
32%
Public sectors
5% 19%
& services Retail
6%
11%
Other
101-500
17% 32%
500+
15

16. Investment in Social Media
Has a portion of your existing Was Social Media originally part of
marketing budget been allocated to your current Online Marketing
Social Media? budget?
Yes Yes
64% 70%
36% 30%
No No
Will Social Media be a part of your Where did the funding for your
next budget? Social Media budget come from?
External grant
No Yes
1%
27% 38%
Creation of
new budgets
It’s already a part
of our budget Moving funds from
40% one budget to another
35%
16
59%

17. Investment in Social Media
How much do you invest in Social Media
each month?
The most profound finding was that 45% More than £500
of respondents had no measure in place We do not use
for return on investment (ROI). 7% Social Media
3% of respondents reported returns in 18%
excess of £50k through their blog,
followed by 2% attributing similar
success trhough Twitter and 1% through
LinkedIn.
75%
Under £500
How much ROI can you attribute to the following
Social Media sites?
(multiple choice question)
LinkedIn, £1-5k Twitter, £5-10k
Blog, £50k+
Facebook, 3% I don’t
measure ROI
£500-1k
Flickr, 5%
£25-50k
3% 45%
11%
2% 4%
Twitter, £1k-5k
5% 2%
Facebook, £1-500 LinkedIn, £25-30k 17

18. Social Media Policy & Strategy
Does your company have a Social Do you have a formal Social Media
Media Policy for staff? Strategy?
Yes Yes
74% 68%
26% 32%
No No
Data Collection Acknowledgements
The results of this survey were collected online. We would like to take this opportunity to
thank all that took the time to contribute
Promoted via: to this publication.
LikeMinds Conference
Social Media channels For a full list of our acknowledgments,
Email marketing please visit:
Traditional media
http://optixsolutions.co.uk/smsurvey2010
The survey ran for a period of 10 months in total.
18

19. Conclusions
For true success in employing Social Media you
should ensure you have provided all the tools to
empower your internal team and make using it
part of their daily working routine. It is important
to back this up with a proper strategy – one that
fits with and into an overall online marketing
strategy.
Although many respondents did claim to have a
Social Media strategy in place, the majority
didn’t have a Social Media policy or measure
ROI. To ensure a consistent, informed and
coherent approach to Social Media, all three
elements need to be brought together.
The huge growth in the amount of time spent
on Social Media sites, and the ever-increasing
number of businesses establishing a presence
on them, make it vital to develop a structured
and coherent approach to Social Media;
differentiating your business and brand, while
delivering consistent messages.
19

20. A quick guide to getting started with Social Media
Develop a Social Media Strategy. Spend time defining who you are targeting, what you
1 are hoping to achieve and how you are going to go about achieving it by identifying which
of the Social Media networks are most suitable. This should include identifying key words
and phrases relating to your business, i.e. ‘web design, Exeter’, that you want to monitor.
These are useful catalysts for beginning to establish engagement.
2 Identify who in your business can be your Social Media ‘champions’.
3 Invest in training to ensure that staff know how to use the platforms they will be expected to
engage in properly – and ensure they have spent some time learning how others are using
each channel before allowing them to throw themselves into it.
4 Allow all staff, especially sceptics, to buy into the process by ensuring they
understand what you are trying to achieve and why.
5 Develop a Social Media policy and ensure it is signed by all staff. Incorporate
it into your HR processes.
20

21. A quick guide to getting started with Social Media
Invest in equipment. You may need to equip your Social Media ‘champions’ with a video 6
camera, laptop, mobile phone, etc… to enable and support their engagement.
Make the leap and start engaging via the channels you have identified in your Social 7
Media strategy.
Ensure customers are made aware of your presence on Social Media sites and encourage 8
them to engage with you.
Ensure that you are regularly measuring and optimising what you are doing so you can 9
increase success by identifying your achievements and new opportunities.
Don’t neglect other forms of advertising and promotion – Social Media is a key 10
part of a marketing mix, not the whole package.
Enjoy it! Socialising should be fun.
:)
21

22. Top Tips from Like Minds
Like Minds was founded in August 2009 amidst the boom of Social Media. Their mission is to create a
platform through conferences held around the world, where participants can join fellow “like minds” in
order to inspire one another and make those ideas happen, all on a level that is accessible both
financially and structurally.
Ask not what the internet can do for you, ask what you can do for the
Internet. There is no secret to Social Media. You could rename it
participation media or relationship media - it would all echo the same
sentiment of enabling people to get involved. Some want to get involved a
little, and some a lot, as is bourne out in this report. But the beginning and
the end of it is around providing a platform that matters to people.
Scott Gould
Scott Gould is co-founder of Like Minds, where he is connecting people across the world through
talking and then doing. He is internationally recognised as a leader in Social Media and community,
working with Fortune 500 companies and speaking at events across the world.
http://twitter.com/scottgould http://scottgould.me http://wearelikeminds.com
Social Media takes me around the world, in person, and gives me a chance
to talk with people face-to-face. Those face-to-face conversations reveal
what I believe are the fundamental drivers of Social Media: 1) everyone
wants to be heard, 2) everyone wants to be understood, and 3) everyone
wants to know his or her life matters.
Trey Pennington
Trey is leveraging Social Media to connect with audiences around the world. HubSpot ranks his
Facebook profile as the #4 most influential in the world. They also routinely rank his Twitter profile in
the top 0.1% of all profiles ranked.
http://twitter.com/treypennington http://treypennington.com
22

23. Top Tips from Like Minds
The socialisation of Media marks the end of corporate communications as
a top down, command-and-control channel. It is an evolutionary leap in
the way humans interact.
Olivier Blanchard
Olivier is a Brand Strategist with 15 years of marketing management experience across a variety of
B2B and B2C industries, from manufacturing and distribution to new media and consumer goods. He
currently manages BrandBuilder Marketing, a brand consulting and marketing management firm.
http://twitter.com/thebrandbuilder http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com
Make sure you join LinkedIn NOW! Create a WOW (buyer friendly) profile
and add all your “Raving Fans” and contacts. But, MOST IMPORTANTLY,
don't forget to reach out and ask for the... appointment, project or job.
“Navel gazing” is just not an option.
Julian Summerhayes
Julian Summerhayes is a Social Media consultant to the professional services sector, and, having
worked as a lawyer for 14 years, he is able to offer key strategic advice to leverage a firm's creative
intellectual capital. In short, he walks the talk.
http://twitter.com/0neLife http://juliansummerhayes.com
23

24. Legal considerations
Whether you are using Social Media for business or personal reasons, it is important that you
understand the legal issues which could cause problems for you and your organisation.
As Social Media continues to grow and develop so do the legal
considerations. On one hand businesses have looked to restrict or even
prohibit staff using Social Media in the workplace, whilst at the same time
they are looking to embrace the opportunities that it brings. Social Media is
here to stay and its use both in the private and business environment will
increase. The opportunity for businesses to capitalise on Social Media and
increase its market knowledge and reach are massive, but it is imperative
that this is done in a manner which does not expose a business to
unnecessary and costly legal disputes.
Anyone embarking on a Social Media campaign needs to consider a
number of legal areas including data protection, employee rights, potential
defamation/libel, breach of confidentiality and protection or infringement of
intellectual property.
Garry Mackay
Partner, Ashfords LLP
Garry is a Partner in Ashfords’ Intellectual Property and Information Technology Team. He advises
clients on their commercial agreements and in particular IT contracts. His work includes outsourcing
agreements, software licensing, development agreements, maintenance contracts and major
commercial project agreements.
Ashfords LLP is a full service law firm providing a broad range of legal services to both commercial
and private clients. As a major law firm, Ashfords serves regional, national and international clients.
Ashfords size and experience means that they are able to provide a wide range of expertise to meet
their clients needs.
http://ashfords.co.uk
24

25. A look to the future
When we created the survey back at the
beginning of 2010, the social landscape had a
very different form to that you’ll find now.
Geo-location services were in their infancy in
the UK, so we didn't include questions on
them. Platforms like Foursquare, Gowalla and
now Facebook Places were relatively unused or
non-existent. Now they are coming into their
own, look out for more retail and B2C
businesses using these ‘check-in’ services to
reward regular customers going into 2011.
Mobile Apps, such as Qype and Voucher Cloud,
are getting more traction and offer end users
and businesses excellent ways of finding each
other.
The landscape is evolving and it’s exciting; who
knows what we'll be writing about next year...
Alastair Banks
25

26. Lets keep the conversation going
This survey is not the end. Social Media platforms
continue to evolve and there is always something to
say, so why not join us and share your comments?
LinkedIn Group: http://linkd.in/aB6DZ1
Twitter: #smsurvey
Blog: http://optixsolutions.co.uk/blog/
Whether you have a comment or question on the
results of this survey or want to share your own
experiences with Social Media, we want to hear all
about it.
26

27. About Optix Solutions
Optix Solutions Ltd is among the UK’s leading and
most innovative web design & online marketing
agencies. Based in Devon, our client base includes
some of the country’s leading companies and
organisations.
We specialise in providing bespoke online solutions,
including all aspects of website design,
development and online marketing. We work in
partnership with our clients, building a thorough and
ongoing understanding of an individual business, the
market it operates in and its future
development.
We have been working with Social Media, both
internally and with businesses looking to employ it
effectively, for the past few years. Part of our reason
for conducting this survey was to measure our
experience of Social Media usage against that of
other businesses, and identify the principal
challenges they face in employing Social Media to
optimum benefit.
For more information on us, please visit:
http://optixsolutions.co.uk
http://facebook.com/optixsolutions
http://youtube.com/optixsolutions
http://twitter.com/optixsolutions