I've frequently questioned the orthodoxy that it's boom time for social media marketing, believing instead that an economic downturn makes marketers stick with what they know - which in more cases than not is traditional 20th century advertising.
One reason for this is the lack of understanding about the individual networks, with even many graduates having little 1st hand social media experience other than the standard Facebook profile and a bit of messing around watching videos on YouTube.
This is confirmed in research by the ad agency McCann Erickson, which did a study of UK marketing experts. 86% recognised that social media was more than just a fad...though does that mean one in seven think it is a fad?
However two-thirds (65.6%) said that they did not know actually know how to use it for marketing. And though 40% claimed to have Twitter accounts, of those 73% had either left their account dormant (30%), or only used it once a week or less (43%).
Social media like the stock market?
In a post, US Social media and PR commentator Shannon Paul picks up on the theme by comparing social media with stock market caution - ie Shannon says that there are similar reasons for why people don't invest in the stock market (recession aside obviously!) and why businesses don't "go social", namely:
1 - Lack of a BS meter. The legions of self appointed experts spouting jargon can be a huge turn off. And more often than not, the noise gives you an excuse to ignore it.
2 - "The rules change. There is no sure fire formula for success. It all seems like a bit of a gamble.
3 - Long term commitments are best. And the whole area seems very short term. Case in point, the chatter about Twitter being the new Second Life?
Shannon additionally points us to David Griner's presentation 'Fear and loathing and Social Media' (see above), which goes through the various corporate hurdles including 'the public will eat us alive', 'we can't trust our employees', 'we'll lose control of our brand', 'if we screw up, it will haunt us forever', 'our audience doesn't use it' (unbelievably you still hear this), 'we don't have the time' and 'we can't predict the ROI.'
David's presentation, which is well worth going through, in turn deals with each of these points.
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