Tag: social media marketing

Social media marketing survey reveals advertising opinions about Facebook

Research from Ad Age has looked into the way that advertisers feel about that network.

The latest survey from Ad Age has looked into the perceptions that advertisers have developed regarding social media marketing over Facebook, including the adoption of ads on that network and the perception of increases in ROI.

Throughout the last 15 months, Facebook has moved to maturity from having been an experimental channel.

Companies that had previously hesitated to include social media marketing as a significant part of their budgets are now considering the channel to be a natural part of their campaigns and are continuing to boost their spending there. This was a part of the results that were confirmed through the participation of approximately 1,200 subscribers to Ad Age who were polled within the company’s survey in connection with RBC Capital Markets.

This social media marketing survey was conducted in August and was the third of its nature since June 2012.

Social Media Marketing SurveyThat June 2012 social media marketing survey occurred just slightly before the IPO at Facebook. This most recent version of the survey has seen an increased percentage of respondents that claim to be using Facebook as a part of their advertising mix. That said, it continues to remain at a steady level greater than 80 percent. At the same time, the specific number who said that they are now advertising over the network has spiked significantly when compared to 15 months before.

Approximately 74 percent of the survey respondents stated that their budgets for Facebook social media marketing now include ad outlays. That number has risen significantly since January 2012, when the figure was 62 percent and even more since June 2012, when it was only 54 percent.

The most recent social media marketing survey included respondents among whom 30 percent identified themselves as employees of ad agencies and 26 percent identified themselves as either marketers or clients. The remainder of the participants were said to be either consultants or employees of media companies.

The increase in the percentage of marketers who are purchasing social media marketing ads from Facebook was said – by Mark Mahaney, RBC Capital analyst – to be a clear indicator of the rising ad income that is headed in Facebook’s direction.

Social media marketing is riddled with bad mistakes

There are errors being made in these strategies that are causing entire campaigns to fail.

Despite the fact that social media marketing can no longer be considered to be new, and that many analytics firms are declaring it to be a channel that is reaching maturity, there are still some devastating errors that are being made that are causing campaigns to be unable to reach their potential, or to fail entirely.

These networks remain a location where communication with customers requires some trial and error.

The latest findings from a study conducted by Econsultancy, along with Adobe, have shown that conclusions from other studies – such as one from Vizu – that were held earlier this year are either wrong, or the trends have completely reversed themselves. What they found is that social media marketing is more focused on lead generation than on branding for marketers worldwide.

Previous studies indicated that the main goal of social media marketing had been focused on the brand.

Social Media Marketing - Bad MistakesThis could suggest that marketers are making a tremendous mistake when it comes to the use of social media marketing. It means that the emphasis of their efforts is on trying to make a sale instead of trying to build a relationship with the consumer by way of branding techniques. It is steering away from the belief that it is more effective to engage the consumer than to simply move a product off the shelf.

This social media trend indicates that marketers are suddenly more focused on the bottom line than they are on making sure that customers build a liking and a loyalty to the brand so that they will come back for more when they need those products, once again.

One of the oldest and best known rules of business is that it is far easier to keep a customer than it is to find a new one. This makes a consumer who is loyal to the brand the most important focus for the majority of companies. However, the results of this recent research suggest that marketers are forgetting this goal when they design their social media strategies, and are no longer as focused on engaging consumers and building loyalty as they are on making sure that a measurable purchase can be made as a result.