What do you think about social media? The Marketing Society polled its members to find out if social networking is all hype and no action among UK marketers
We've all read Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, we all know that young people are spending an increasing amount of time on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Bebo; but how are marketers incorporating social networking into communicating their brands? The Marketing Society polled its members to better understand their views on social media.
The overall results suggest that the marketing community is both reluctant and cautious about using social media until they're more certain about how and whether it works as a marketing channel. "It has the appearance of being a major new opportunity but there are a lot of negatives coming to light at the moment. I think that there could be a lot of backing away from it soon," said one marketing director.
Another respondent pointed out that social networking wasn't really anything new. "It's not so much revolutionary but more akin to the old 'word of mouth'; with significantly increased opportunities for spreading that word. For this reason, brands need to understand and harness the power of Social Networks before their competitors do."
Just 34% of marketing directors and 45% of agencies believe social media is worth monitoring at an executive level with senior resources in order to better understand its potential impact on marketing communications. So what's the greatest barrier? Lack of evidence. Marketers want more proof about how social media works and until then they're going to be hesitant. Nearly 30% of marketers and 35% of agencies cite lack of practice and proven models as the greatest barrier, while 15% of agencies and 14% of marketers cite lack of knowledge and skills.
The use of social media is in its early stages at the moment for most marketers. 34% of marketers and 36% of agencies use it for learning and gleaning consumer insights and 29% of marketers use it for social experimentation.
In a separate question, respondents suggested that the greatest opportunity in social media lies in blogging. Nearly 80% of marketers said that social media was best used for creating a community of bloggers, while 71% said it was best for viral campaigns on sites like YouTube.
For now, it looks like most marketers are adopting a wait and see approach. They're watching and listening rather than trying to manipulate social media to their own ends. Some final words of wisdom come from one of the research respondents:
"There will definitely be a flush of excitement and over-investment - some organisations will get their fingers burned. However with the slow demise of TV as an influencer; we all need to be smarter at how we speak to consumers. I stop short of calling it a passing fad as I think it is a long term and possibly important phenomenon. But I find it hard to see yet that it's hugely important for marketers. The best thing marketers can do is experience it for themselves. I get the impression few of them do."
The Social media study was conducted in April and May 2008 by Incite on behalf of The Marketing Society. The online quantitative survey questioned 225 Market Leader subscribers. The full report will be featured on the website.