According to an industry survey, two-thirds of marketing experts have said they still do not understand social media in spite of it being a huge medium in online marketing.
The Social Media survey, conducted by McCann Erickson Bristol, found that 86% of marketing professionals appreciated that social media was more than 'just a fad'. Yet, 65.6% of them confessed to not knowing how to use it for the purpose of marketing.
With the social networking sites, the most popular with marketers remain to be Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with 72.8%, 42.4% and 40.2% have a presence on them. And yet, around half of those surveyed announced that their IT departments had blocked access to these social media sites, again blocking the ability of marketers to monitor these sites in regards to what is happening with their brand.
Of the businesses that do use social media, over half are used with the aim of profile raising or PR, 48% for networking and 30% for advertising.
Head of PR at McCann Erickson Bristol, Joanna Randall, said: "This study highlights that some of the UK's major businesses are ignoring social media channels - but they do so at their peril."
"Word of mouth is now more powerful than ever - opinions can be shared with a global audience at the click of a button."
"We all have the ability to influence, both positively and negatively, and therefore as marketing professionals we should be considering how best to harness the power of social media."
Author:
Chris Crawford of BD Recruitment, the home of marketing recruitment.
This is really relevant at the minute but, I dare say there's an awful lot of marketers out there who are also aware of time, no don't give me the old adage that irrelevant of time this must be done, because in one week we have a set amount of time to work, unless you just like being glued to your computer and not getting a real life as well, and within this set amount of time there is plenty of 'other' important marketing and optimising jobs to be done.
ReplyDeleteI can't see many of my clients liking the idea that I'm spending time on Twitter and Facebook marketing their site - would it wash?
Also how much true business is brought in by "I'm on my second coffee of the day" or "just flown in from London"?
Much as I like the idea that these social media sites will generate links and authority to the sites I manage, I'm still to see the rewards, and believe me, just because I'm grumbling here doesn't mean I haven't tried.