Lack of Time, Resources greatest hindrance to Social Media Marketing.

Marketers and other business decision makers who struggle with a lack of time and resources for social media marketing may need to reconsider how they view and approach the practice, according to the latest research by R2integrated (R2i), a leading Internet marketing and technology agency.

When R2i surveyed 296 marketing professionals from several leading industries on social media marketing, 45 percent stated that time and resources would be their greatest combined challenge in 2011. Forty-two percent stated that time and resources were the greatest barriers to entry into social media, and 38 percent that their biggest mistake with social media was not allocating proper time and resources.

“One possible reason for this conundrum may stem from companies trying to be all things to all people in all places, which is simply a time and resource impossibility for programmatic social media marketing,” said Matt Goddard, CEO, R2i. “By optimizing scale and relevance within their social media programs, marketers can better devise and execute on activities that are necessary for effective social media marketing, such as strategy development, headcount allocation, content creation and so on.”

According to R2i data, 56 percent of companies do not have a defined social media strategy, while 45 percent have no plans to hire dedicated staff to manage their social media marketing. These percentages have fluctuated since last April when R2i conducted its first social media survey. Then, 50 percent of marketers had a social strategy and most had dedicated staff to managing their social activity.

Currently, 31 percent of marketers use social media to publish content, 27 percent use it for lead generation and business development, and 19 percent use it to listen to conversations and monitor their brand.

“Most marketers understand the basic need to provide useful content to social spaces, but they aren’t able to keep up with the ongoing publishing demands, and don’t know how to manage conversations around their content within a community of interest,” said Goddard. “Even though there are tools to amplify brand monitoring and listening, true social marketing management systems will be needed to hone and better target conversation content, thereby making better use of marketer’s time and resources and increasing overall social media effectiveness.”

Twenty-eight percent of survey respondents measured social media marketing effectiveness through website traffic and inbound links, 18 percent through leads. When asked if they have been able to make a conversion from the initial connection to a sale via social media, 39 percent responded no, 36 percent yes, and 25 percent that they were getting close.

The majority of respondents at 62 percent checked that they would allocate up to 20 percent of 2011’s marketing budget on social media activities. They intend to focus on websites (35 percent) and search (20 percent) as their two main marketing channels. Most do not plan to investigate or invest in other social technologies such as augmented reality, social buying, geo location or QR codes in 2011.

“Marketers and businesses took what seemed to be a safe and restricted approach to social media marketing in 2010 by focusing primarily on Facebook and Twitter, fans and followers.” ,” said Goddard. “There is some indication that they may do the same in 2011.”

In terms of how marketers and their companies react to social media technologies, 15 percent are skeptical of and slow to adopt them, while 43 percent focus on the basics—Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Marketers use these three platforms the most.

For more information at http://www.r2integrated.com