Alterian released the results of their seventh annual survey. The sample covered 1068 marketing professionals worldwide and found that 66 percent of respondents will be investing in Social Media Marketing (SMM) in the next 12 months. Of those investing in SMM 40 percent said they would be shifting more than a fifth of their traditional direct marketing budget towards funding their SMM activities.
Social Marketing
Harnessing Active Brand Advocates.
With brands turning more to earned media—the additional free exposure that a brand gets when consumers talk about a brand—they depend on motivated consumers to act as advocates. A survey conducted by Synovate for word-of-mouth ad network PostRelease investigated just how likely Internet users are to do that.
Marketing – Not Ads fuels Social Spending Growth.
Going social is no longer an experiment for marketers; it is a reality. There is no question that companies and brands are investing real dollars in social network marketing. However, paid advertising in social networks—banners, text ads and search advertising, as well as the more targeted advertising being deployed by Facebook and MySpace—is only a fraction of the spending.
Social Media and Brand Reputation Strategy
An oft-cited fear of brands is that online consumers will post negative comments about them, especially on social media where opinions can be broadcast far and wide. In their “Social Media and Online PR Report,” Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia explored ways marketers can combat brand bashing.
Using Social Media Strategically.
As marketers become more comfortable and more experienced using social media, they move from the trial phase of their marketing efforts toward strategic use of the channel. While the largest group of marketers is still somewhere in between, according to the “2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report” from MarketingSherpa, about one-quarter of social media marketers have made it to the strategic phase of their efforts.
Cutting through the Social Media Clutter.
We all know social media is a hot topic, but how do we tie it to some sort of return? While 70 percent of companies are currently using social media in some way, statistics show that executives are more likely to assign employees to social media initiatives than budget dollars. Download report here.
