What if somebody used social media techniques to gather research about the adoption of social media by marketers? Wouldn't it be cool and provocative?
That's the premise behind the 2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report instigated by Christina Kerley and produced by Equation Research with the participation of many marketers in framing the questions and 1469 respondents representing clients, agencies, consultants, vendors and non-profits. The survey, fielded between June 3 and July 2, 2009, is believed to be the first time the community both crafted the questions and the answers to figure out what's going on.
And while the technique is novel, the results are not. They are predictable and practical.
The survey found that there is a "boundless enthusiasm" for social media and widespread experimentation but there is no consensus on what it is or how best to use it. Is this news to anyone?
Some believe social media is media. Others see it as a distribution or communications channels. Still others see it as a concept or a consciousness about how brands engage their customers. But with 59% of respondents currently using social media it's fair to claim that social media --however its defined-- has reached critical mass.
The biggest names with the biggest traffic (Facebook & Twitter) and established tactics (online videos and blogs) get the most play. Though most marketers are using more than one tactic, often in tandem with each other. Most respondents reported playing around with 5-7 social memes usually in the same time frame though its not clear if or how they are synchronized or syncopated.
These activities account for approximately one-third of current marketing spend; slightly higher in smaller firms. It's a fair bet that in a sustained tight economy, these lower cost, buzz-oriented media will continue to grow as a percentage of overall marketing allocations. Social media have significant "promise" for the near term future along with other low cost-high return tools like search engine advertising, outbound e-mail and PR.
Mobile media has less traction than social media probably because its perceived to be intrusive, complicated and technically challenging. Easily a third of respondents are content to sit on the sidelines and wait-and-see what happens.
The data confirms what anyone paying attention could surmise. The technique -- drawing together the marketing community to build a research agenda and then field the survey is cool.
B2C marketers are more aggressive experimenters than their B2B counterparts and smaller firms are quicker to embrace these new tools than larger, more bureaucratic organizations. For many inertia and the usual reasons why not (no plan, no budget, no strategy, no risk appetite, no metrics) are the barriers to adoption.
In the field of social media networks bigger names as Face book and Twitter generates huge traffic , likewise steps to attain market share as blogs and audio video plays an important role .
Posted by: jeff paul forum | October 07, 2009 at 11:26 PM