In June 2009, I posted a slide show presentation trying to answer the question “Does Digital Media Advertising Make $en$e?“, which used some examples such as Google’s Picasa and Skitch to provide insights into this topic.
Recently eMarketer released the results of a survey of 211 participants indicating their use or plan of using social media marketing.
Of those 59% who responded that they social media marketing is currently part of their marketing activity, more than 50% indicated that Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and online videos are the core of their social media marketing strategies. From those that are planning to implement or are not using or not planing to use social media marketing, it appears that they seem to be stuck on trying to answer the question: “Does Digital Marketing Make $en$e?”
I would like to point out a couple of important problems that become clear with the results of the survey above:
- No funding for social media budget: If you’re not willing to set up a budget for a marketing campaign, how are you expecting to create leads for sales or actual sales? The GIGO concept applies here. If you’re putting in $0, you will most likely get $0 in return. Yes, setting a Facebook Page is free, but you do need to spend a bit of targeted advertising to reach to more people. Yes, it’s free to set up a LinkedIn Group, but you do need a business account to be able to view more search results and get more InMails.
- There’s no established way to measure social media: Are you kidding? It’s the same way that you measure any marketing campaign: How many leads or sales did your marketing created! (This of course, depends on what type of organization is running the campaign: it could be calls to an 1-800 number, or downloads of a registration form for a seminar, or registering to receive a newsletter). All you need is a strong web analytics package such as Clicktracks or Google Analytics.
- Don’t know enough about social media: Then what are you waiting for? Employ a couple interns to decipher what you don’t understand to you. If you don’t have the time to find out, then pay somebody to find out for you. Note: don’t invest in a marvelous web analytics or social media optimization package without having properly trained staff in place. In social media marketing (as well as in web analytics), follow the 90/10 rule: 90% of your social media marketing expenses should be in the people and 10% in the equipment/software. 2 employees well educated in web analytics can achieve far more than 1 software.
Even if you “feel” that you don’t need any online presence at all, do probe further into fulling supporting your reasons. Don’t be surprised if you find that at the very least you must take care of your presence that happens from search engine visits.
i have tried social media marketing for getting our new products to be known on the market. it seems to work well specially if the audience is targeted .”