In a new report from Forrester Research analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, entitled “Social Media Playtime is Over” new data supports what many social media providers and evangelists have discussing for sometime. The findings from a recent study show that 53% of marketers plan to increase spending in social media while 42% will remain the same this despite the current economic malaise.
To quote Jeremiah’s report “The recession has put more pressure on interactive marketers to deliver measurable results. While many marketing budgets are being cinched, more than 50% of interactive marketers say they will increase their spending on social marketing. Why? These inexpensive tools can quickly get marketing messages out through interactive discussion and rapid word of mouth and, properly managed, can deliver measurable results. But in this downturn, interactive marketers must move beyond experimentation by making social applications a permanent part of marketing, measuring and demonstrating their value, and integrating them into marketing efforts.”
The main highlights of the report include:
- Many marketers are already using social technologies for marketing, almost all of interactive marketers surveyed are currently using some form of social media and most plan increases despite the recession, starting with investments in social networks, blogs, and user-generated content.
- While social application spending remains small, Fifty-three percent of interactive marketers using social media expect that their budgets for social media marketing will increase as a response to the recession.
- Despite this shift toward social, these budgets remain minute compared with larger expenditures like advertising. Interactive marketers at large companies are still only spending a fraction of their resources on social marketing.
- Social applications aren’t a formalized line item in marketing budgets. Social marketing isn’t yet a formalized line item in the marketing budget, as most social application budgets aren’t predetermined.
- Forrester data suggests that marketers intend to invest more in social media but need to justify larger budgets.
- Marketers shouldn’t continue to invest in social media as an experiment but rather as a long term strategic program/plan.
- Marketers must demonstrate that social investments are effective and how it moves customers down the marketing funnel by measuring awareness, interactions, and intent to buy.
- Social media applications must prove effectiveness in order to pry budgets away from corporate marketing or advertising. Marketers should invest in a listening platform, then integrate social marketing metrics like share of voice and engagement that can reveal ROI through leads and purchase.
Nice report Jeremiah.
Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies
3 comments ↓
Thanks for touching on the highlights of the report. I’ve seen a few blog posts about it but haven’t seen the report yet.
I love the title of the report–I think it says so much. But in a sense, I think it’s also missing a big piece. Why are so many marketers considering social media as the strategy itself? Isn’t the real strategy “conversation”?
The great thing about social media outlets and tools is the ease with which companies can now talk “with” customers, prospects and the rest of the world rather than advertise “at” them.
I believe that Conversation Marketing should be the strategy and each company should consider the tactics and tools to have that two-way interaction with the audience(s) they’re trying to reach. Many social media tools and outlets will factor greatly in intelligent tactical planning for most companies, but the emphasis shouldn’t be on those tools but rather on which tools and outlets make the most sense for our audience and for us to use to interact with that audience AND with the influencers who are helping that audience to make purchase decisions. Finally, once that is determined, the messaging used should not consist of the same old marketing and sales messages pasted into social media tools and outlets–people don’t want this new form of spam any more than they wanted it in their email inbox. They want real, quality content that speaks to them about their needs. If you’re the vendor and your product solves their needs, they’ll be more impressed and likely to buy if you don’t blow marketing sunshine at them.
Christine -
Great points. In agreement. The rise of the channel/tools and participation of consumer requires organizations and marketers to reexamine they ways in which they interact with there customers. They days of one to many are rapidly morphing and requiring a more one-to-one dialogue.
Blake
Many marketers are drawn to internet network marketing and social media because of the reduced costs compared to expensive television, radio and newspaper ads. Today’s internet users want personal interactions with those they do business with before they make a buying decision. Social media marketing for instance, which taps into a familiar concept called attraction marketing or magnetic sponsoring, lets you build relationships with your targeted audience. Social media sites can help establish your presence in a number of different places on the Web. Traditional marketing will never be able to target as precisely as social media marketing. Just imagine the social media profit you can have in being able to recruit people from different places.
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