Social Media Not Understood By Marketers

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.

Confused.com Account goes to the Search Works

Confused.com has appointed The Search Works to handle all its pay-per-click requirements. They won the account after a competitive battle involving five unnamed agencies.

Confused.com is an on on-line site that specialises in insurance, money and utilities comparisons and since their launch in 2002 they have generated more than one million quotes per month. Their off-line media, planning and buying requirements worth £20m are also apparently being reviewed.

Tom Bennet, Marketing Director at Confused.com, said: "When it came to choosing an agency, not only did we require a specialist to handle our search strategy, we were also looking for an extension of our in-house marketing team that would push our campaigns to the next level."

So who did miss out?

Article Source:
Chris Crawford is MD of BD Recruitment, a specialist recruiter for the internet jobs sector, with a flurry of graphic design jobs and IT recruitment.