While social media has been enthusiastically embraced as a way to share ideas and have conversations, it is just beginning to gain some serious traction as a marketing tool.
According to the “2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report” from Equation Research, 59% of brand markets are now using social media as a marketing tool, while 28% plan to implement it over the next 12 months. Only 13% of brand markets said they have no plans to use social media. The most popular social media tool for brand and agency marketers are Facebook, Twitter, online videos and blogs.
Of particular interest are the barriers cited by brand marketers when it comes to using social media. The two leading responses (37% each) was they did not know enough about social media, and there is no good way to measure its effectiveness. There was also concern that social media is not proven or tested as a marketing strategy (31%), while funding was mentioned by 25% of respondents.
In terms of ways to measure the effectiveness of social media market, there is little doubt that brand marketers will find it easier to do as the social media monitoring and analytics market continues to evolve.
At Sysomos, we’re seeing strong traction from public relations, digital and advertising agencies using our Heartbeat (social media monitoring and measurement) and MAP (analytics) services to get information and insight into what’s happening on the social media landscape and, as important, engage with people driving the conversations.
Tags: business intelligence, equation research, marketing, Social Media, sysomos
