thefunnel

I was reading a fresh report on the state of search engine marketing and  it had some interesting stats about social media.  The first one was that the majority (>60%) of companies have decided to (or are currently) tackle social media with in-house resources. Using a social media specialist, a pr agency, a digital marketing agency etc. were all in the 3 – 7% range. This is quite natural when you think about it, because although there can be policies and guidelines around social media, the actual execution need to be spontaneous, immediate and less scripted, so it all lends itself towards people from within the organization. This, I think could create an interesting dynamic, because unless companies are willing to invest in resources, social media initiatives might starve and be slow to take off. It also creates a challenge for agencies. After all they are supposed to be experts, but with less opportunities their portfolio could look a bit thin. More to follow.

Normally I try generate unique content, and not reiterate what others are doing, but today I participated in a MarketingProfs seminar regarding the “State of Social Media”, and this is well worth a brief comment. This research is an in depth view and benchmark into more 3000 companies (both B-2-B and B-2-C), and how they use social media, how they measure it and what their success so far has been. There’s a few surprising findings / recommendations.

1) There’s hardly any difference at all between the usage in B-2-B and B-2-C. Same tools are used trying to achieve the same things. You would think B-2-C would be much further ahead, but no. They are exactly in the same place with approximately success rate for what they’re trying to do. Except of course that their participating audiences are larger.

2) The objectives around Social Media are pretty fundamental – driving traffic to the web site, generate awareness and look for negative PR comments. Again you would think B-2-C would have more creative goals.

3) Although Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are the big ones, there’s a large number of smaller “industry specific” applications, so practitioners really need to know what their customers are using on a micro level. Twitter might not be it, although everyone is talking about it . You need to find out what the “work persona” is using.

4) Of the people that are using Social Media, only an average of 35% say that the efforts are successful meeting expectations. Pretty bad, compared to more traditional e-marketing activities like email marketing, or maybe the expectations are too low for email.

5) The average number of Twitter followers for companies are greatly skewed due to a few high hitters. The norm is about 150. So if your company have 150 followers you’re doing OK.

6) Only 12% of companies have strict and clearly articulated Social Media policies, and > 60% of marketers practicing Social Media do it “on their own time” (not being paid for it or part of their objectives)

A few nuggets (with my own twist) from an article (Arruda) about personal branding in the Social Media era, that I thought were valuable, but also apply well to company branding and the basics of marketing.
- Don’t be a fake. Strong brands are about authenticity (value proposition)
- Wishy-washy. Don’t try to be everything to all people (segmentation and targeting)
- Think before you act. Have a plan before you engage with social media (planning is everything, plans are nothing)
- Talk, and more talk. If you have nothing better to do than just re-tweeting everything, just stop
- Quality is better than quantity. Better to have a few right followers / participants / visitors than lots of the wrong ones
- Don’t switch tools all the time. It’s not about the tool. It’s all about the content (the latest hype)
- Don’t forget traditional marketing vehicles (you customers might spend most of their time off line)
- There’s a temptation to do everything cheaply with low quality to save some money, after all the Social Web is all about CGC, but what perception will this portray on your products and company. Don’t confuse amateurs with professionals
- Talk about what you can do for your customers rather than what you do (we, we, versus them)
- Don’t measure anything. Everything can be measured (outcome based marketing)