Tag: social media advertising

As the environment continues to mature and grow it is pushing other techniques aside.

Recent analyses and reports are showing that social media marketing is not only greatly expanding in its use and effectiveness, but it appears to be achieving its goals at the expense of display advertising.

Using social networks is proving to be much more appealing to consumers who are growing weary of other ad forms.

Recent research by IZEA, a social sponsorship startup, has revealed that after having surveyed 10,000 brand marketers, social influencers, and social media consultants, approximately one in three marketers are equally weary of display ads as has been seen from the side of consumers. On the other hand, social media marketing appears to be continuing to expand and mature on every level.

The social media marketing study revealed that actions in this area are improving in every direction.

For example, the use of sponsored photos has increased to 33 percent in 2013 after having been only 24 percent at the same time last year. Moreover, 29 percent of marketers said that they had been using Pinterest’s sponsored pins opportunity, said the report.

IZEA also pointed out that when comparing the revenue generated by sponsored images with that of display ads, it is the sponsorships that bring in more money according to 55.7 percent of the participants in their study.

At the same time, though, the rise of promotions and advertising in social networks has led to a notably greater demand from influencers. In fact, these individuals who are highly connected should now increasingly expect to receive brand compensation for making mention of the products or services that they are selling, said the report. Twenty six percent of influencers have said that the amount of time that they spent in the maintenance of their social presence can now be compared to the hours that they would apply to full time employment.

Equally, though, social media marketing remains a confusing environment, as a considerable percentage of influencers have not yet completely mastered the best practices for compensation disclosure, as the FTC now requires that this must occur when a substantial reward is traded for the creation of content.

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.