Tag: social media marketing

Social media marketing value still hazy among some marketers

| August 16, 2013

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.

social media marketing challengesWithin 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.

Social media marketing expectations are changing

| August 14, 2013

According to the latest research, there is a maturing occurring in what people expect from this technique.

There is nothing rare about research being conducted on the results that are being generated by social media marketing, but what is starting to become quite interesting in this domain is the change in the expectations surrounding the results that the technique will generate.

Now that the channel has been used for a few years, it is becoming possible to view its trends.

Some patterns have started to emerge as the very latest in studies have been released by the researchers at the Pivot Conference, and their publication, the “State of Social Media Marketing 2012-2013”. Though the research did provide a large amount of detail as to the breakdown of the use of the strategy over the last few years, it is the trends that are being viewed as the most worthwhile.

For example, many of the respondents in this study changed their feeling that social media marketing success must be gauged by sales.

Social media marketing changesIn 2011, the respondents stated in 100 percent of the cases that an increase in sales was the top goal for any campaign using social media marketing, either for their own company, or those of their clients. However, that opinion has changed dramatically since that time, as in 2012, it was recorded that less than 50 percent of the participants felt the same way. This year, it appears to be climbing again, and is currently settled at the 56 percent mark.

The data from the study also showed that there were tremendously high expectations of the performance of social media marketing in 2011 and a withdrawal of that belief in 2012. This year, there seems to be a rebound in the faith that marketers have in the technique. This occurred in nearly every response area of the study.

Many are interpreting this as a sign that social media marketing as a technique is now maturing, and that the understanding and expectations surrounding it are starting to become more realistic and steady. It has moved beyond the tremendous hype and has survived disappointment and is now starting to level off to a degree that is often seen in areas that are more established.