Google+ Ranks #1 in Most Categories of New Marketer's Guide? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Pinterest, Google+, SlideShare, Quora, and Instagram are included for the first time on the third yearly consecutive CMO.com Guide to the Social Landscape.

This infographic, developed by 97th Floor, a SEO, social media, and viral infographics firm, goes through all of the major social networks and ranks them by their abilities to help marketers in four different categories: customer communications, brand exposure, traffic to your site, and SEO.

Google+ is going to clearly win the SEO battle, but it’s surprising to see them on top for brand exposure and customer communication. Twitter ranked number one as the network more likely to drive traffic to your site, with Pinterest (which reached the 10 million monthly visitors level in less time than Facebook or Twitter did) also ranking a “good” in that category.

The infographic is unique in that it can be sorted for each category. Go to the page itself and click on the name of the category, for instance, and watch the ranking change for each one.

I guess my main problem with this social media infographic is its actual ranking system. For any marketer just beginning to use some of these tools, the squares that accompany each category do contain a nice amount of introductory material. If you are new to the social media space and you’re trying to get a lay of the land, this is a good place to start–but let it be a springboard into more in-depth research about each one.

But before you put together any social media program on any level, make sure you start by listening. Finding out where people are talking about your brand and what they are saying is essential before diving in with any social media strategy.

2012 CMO Guide To The Social Landscape

Tagged as: best social network, best social tools, choosing the right platform, Guide to the Social Landscape, marketer's guide, seo infographic, social media infographic