Who is Using Social Media Marketing?

With Social Networks are trying to monetize their robust member bases, many marketers are still wondering how to best get involved. A recent eMarketer article shows that spending on social media marketing may still be considered experimental.

What Does it Mean for Marketers?

1. Spending on Social Networks: One-third of US marketers and agencies surveyed in an iMedia Connection poll in March said that they planned to spend $300,000 or less this year on social network marketing – and one-third planned on spending $2 million or more.

2. Advertising is the main revenue driver: With ad spending predicted to $1.6 billion this year and to $2.7 billion by 2011. There are other sources of revenue: subscriptions, premium services and e-commerce to name a few – but ad models still prevail. Enterprise communities like Experts Exchange who have millions of paid members and an abundance of social tools give me hope that we will one day diversify our dependance upon ad dollars in favor of offering high-value services.

3. Social Media Marketing is being led by cutting edge marketers, and often at smaller companies who are limited in budget and abundant in imagination. Depending on who you believe, its estimated that somewhere between 16%-49% of marketers are currently doing some form of social marketing. Lets face it, in our quarterly-driven, ROI based corporate environments its not easy to stand up in front of your company and pitch your plan for marketing domination through social media. For the forward-thinking marketer that is willing to take a risk, social marketing can be both exciting and daunting.

Marketers like George Wright, marketing director at Blendtec came up with the concept for one of the most noteable campaigns leveraging social media. At Blendtec, a small blender company he decided to experiment with video’s when he saw his product testers using extreme methods to test the durability of their products. He created in house-videos at a cost of less than $100 featuring their CEO blending a variety of fun things like garden rakes, iPod, Tiki torches, Glow sticks, Guitar Hero III. They created a site http://www.willitblend.com/ and posted their video’s on You Tube. They then used blogs and other social tactics to create awareness. Within 5 days the videos had over 6 million views, thousands of comments and blender sales were increasing accordingly.

4. Social media Marketing for Enterprise is today is mainly focused on adding social media tools to already existing web initiatives, but is slowly expanding to more innovative uses. There are many examples of marketers getting high ROI from use of social media marketing, but it requires imagination and an ability to think outside of the traditional corporate marketing box…and in some cases an ability to move forward despite skepticism.

The net/ net: A lot more education needs to be done with Enterprise marketers to see the value and potential of social media marketing before we will see adoption rise to mainstream levels.

Comments

[Justin Stauffer]

Hi Karen,

I just happened across your blog. Some very inciteful posts too!

It is not my intention to be nit-picky however there is one thing I wanted to point out and have you ponder.

Your post is about "Social Media Marketing" not "Social Marketing". A big difference, here's why...

Social Marketing focuses primarily upon bringing about changes in social norms. Examples include: Green Initiatives, Anti-Smoking Campaigns, etc.

Social Media Marketing is what you are describing. It focuses on individualized media. It includes everything from blog posts, forums and podcasts to social networks and bookmarking...

On many levels there is something much more profound in someone that attempts to change social behaviors and norms instead of someone like me that is looking to merely market to an individual.

Thought I would share!

Cheers!
JS

[Karen O'Brien]

Hi Justin - Thank-you for making that distinction - yes, I agree with you. I have adjusted my posting and will be mindful of it going forward!

[Justin Levy]

Hi Karen:

This is a very interesting post and one that I think will continue to have relevance in the future.

Many large corporations are now embracing the use of social media to interact in various ways: customer-employee, employee-employee, corporation-employee, etc. One corporation which is on the front lines of this is IBM. I recently read a story posted in the New York Times about how they have even created their own internal social network. I have also read stories about internal groups at the New York Times who use Facebook as a phone directory and to communicate with one another. Also, one doesn't have to look far on Twitter to find companies who use it as a means of communication (LAFD comes immediately to mind).

Thanks for an informative and thought-provoking post!

-Justin Levy