Social media channels offer companies new ways to listen and connect to consumers. Marketers can leverage these channels to increase brand awareness and customer loyalty, ultimately driving more sales.
That all seems relatively straightforward, doesn’t it?
But, have companies been capitalizing on the obvious? Are they actually taking advantage of all that social media has to offer?
Apparently not. According to research from SmartBrief and Summus Limited, the majority of businesses (60 percent) today ARE using social media. But, in general, there is low confidence in social media strategies.
Data for this new survey was collected from 6,500 executives, and the results show that:
- Most companies are focusing their social media efforts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs.
- Brand-building is currently the primary purpose for business social-media usage. (I’m not surprised by this result since marketers are used to talking “at” consumers, rather than “with” them. Old habits die hard. Plus, I think this finding also relates to the limited resources most companies are devoting to social media pilot programs. Brand-building can be automated. It’s more difficult –and more expensive –to engage consumers in interactive, two-way conversations.)
- Communications, advertising and marketing agencies are the leading adopters of social media.
- Adoption of social media remains hamstrung by significant obstacles. Chief among them: lack of management support and confidentiality concerns.
- Less than 15 percent of the businesses using social media are measuring return on investment (ROI).
Clearly, it’s going to take time for companies to incorporate social media effectively. It seems that early adopters are likely to achieve considerable competitive advantage, particularly if they can integrate their online and offline messages. Social media offers valuable opportunities to build relationships with both customers and prospects –but marketers need to recognize the unique nature of these channels (most require more listening than talking, for example), and they need to step up to their challenges (distinguishing signal from noise, adopting usage guidelines, etc.).
The “business as usual” mantra no longer applies, and the sooner marketers realize that, the more successful they’ll be.
[...] service, crowd-sourcing, advertising, promoting, and beyond. So it’s no surprise that around 60% of companies are using social media in some way. Numerous articles and discussions have centered around “best practices” for [...]