I recently went back and dove into this extensive, well-researched March 2009 report on the social media marketing industry. The report was written after in-depth interviews with nearly 900 people in the marketing and communications industry. It’s a must-read if you or your business want to or already are using social media. Here are some of the most significant points I found:

There's still time to jump on this new bandwagon: First, not "everybody" is doing it yet, but if they're not doing it already, most marketers are planning to. A hefty 88% of surveyed marketers were using social media to market their businesses, but 72% had only been using it for a few months.

The best social media marketers realize that social media is a significant time commitment: 64% of marketers are using social media for 5+ hours per week, and 39% are using it for 10 or more hours every week.

Young People are not the majority age demographic for social media: People aged 30 to 39 are most likely to be using social media, followed by 20-29 year olds and then 50-59 year-olds.

The top social media tools (right now): Twitter, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook (in that order) Less well-known benefits: More than half of the reports survey participants reported a rise in search engine rankings with their use of social media . After only a few months of using social media, and with spending as little as 6 hours per week, more than half of marketers have generated qualified leads with social media marketing. Small businesses (2-100 employees) more often than larger ones reported significant benefits and increases in traffic from using social media.

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it! Check out the easy-to-read full report. :)