Some people in the industry are still not entirely convinced about the benefits that it brings.
According to an analyst from Forrester Research, even though social media marketing has been around for almost a decade, many marketers are still questioning its benefits and there are still more who feel that their campaigns are failing than succeeding.
The analyst, Nate Elliott, published this statement in his most recent report, at a time when the channel has never been bigger.
This has caused many to ask questions regarding what is making social media marketing so difficult to use in a successful way. There were many different responses that were provided in the Forrester study, ranging from budget to return on investment and a number of other areas. It is clear that there are many different means by which to decide whether or not a campaign has been successful, and a standard has not yet been created.
Social media marketing has a number of challenges that are making marketers feel uncertain.
Within the Forrester study, participants were asked to identify their top three challenges when it came to social media marketing. The answer provided a number of different areas, including the following:
• ROI (38 percent)
• Measurement (35 percent)
• Lack of internal resources, such as workers (34 percent)
• Lack of budget (25 percent)
• Integrating social media marketing with other channels (24 percent)
• Lack of time (23 percent)
The social media marketing industry doesn’t typically enjoy focusing on the struggles that businesses and brands are continuing to experience in its use. However, at the same time, the challenges are not suggesting that the channel is not worthwhile. Instead, it merely indicates that the channel is not a magical cure for all advertising and promotion issues that have been seen in other areas. It has reached a time in which it is being recognized as a useful, but not perfect way to connect with consumers, as is the case with virtually every other mature marketing channel. Furthermore, it still remains very unique from any other method of reaching consumers, which means that there is still a learning curve for applying it properly.
