The 2009-10 State of Social Marketing

LET'S TALK

If social media offer a chance for dialog between company and customer, there's one aspect marketers are hesitant about using. Only 17% ask for, and publish, customer ratings and reviews on their Web sites. Another 4% ask for reviews and syndicate these out to third-party e-commerce sites. And two-thirds flat-out don't solicit these, either for their own sites or others. Retail or reseller sites are more prone to offer consumer reviews or ratings, but even then, only a shade more than a quarter of those polled do so.

Why don't they? More than half feel the expectations of timely responses that the Internet culture requires would be too daunting — a figure that jumps to nearly two-thirds among consumer firms. Another 12% say their offerings wouldn't benefit from customer word of mouth. Other reasons include not wanting to reveal their customers and having other, offline feedback mechanisms in place. And one, who appears to have found the light, writes “Creating new Web site. Good idea!”

If taking in feedback doesn't yet rank atop company social media efforts, pushing out content is definitely climbing. Thirty-eight percent have corporate Twitter accounts, with another 13% anticipating opening one during the coming year. Consumer firms are somewhat more likely to have these accounts than B-to-B firms, and a greater number of large companies than small firms reported having them. But B-to-B respondents are more likely to be studying Twitter for possible deployment in 2010.

TWEETING FOR TRAFFIC

Twitter is largely being used to drive Web traffic through announcements of new content. Here, B-to-B firms take the lead, with 59% doing so, although just over half of consumer marketers follow suit. But consumer firms are much more aggressive about using Twitter to notify customers of special offers — nearly two-thirds do so, compared with fewer than half of B-to-B marketers.

Consumer-focused marketers are also much more likely to use Twitter to identify their fans and segment them for further targeting. Half do so, compared with 39% of B-to-B firms. And they're understandably more likely to use Twitter to generate store traffic than are B-to-B companies.

Other uses include brand building and top-of-mind awareness, protecting the brand by registering the account but not actively using it, and providing one more channel for listening to fans.

There are, of course, other tactics marketers are using to merge their campaigns. Nearly half report sending e-mail that can be shared to social network portfolio pages. Just under one-third upload promotional videos to YouTube or other aggregator sites. One in five use downloadable Web or mobile coupons, although admittedly this is much more common among consumer firms than B-to-B marketers. And while overall 13% use mobile text messaging campaigns, consumer marketers are twice as likely to do so than are their B-to-B brethren.

METHODOLOGY:

This survey was conducted for Chief Marketer by Penton Research, an in-house firm. It was e-mailed to 32,135 active subscribers of properties within the Chief Marketer Group.

An initial copy of the survey, offering a chance to win one of four $50 Visa gift cards, was sent out Aug. 29. A follow-up e-mail, along with the sweepstakes offer, was sent to non-respondents.

Results are based on 737 surveys returned by qualified participants. Respondents characterized their company's primary business category as advertising/sales/direct marketing agency or consultant (25%); retailer/cataloger/wholesaler/distributor (17%); manufacturer (13%); banking/insurance/real estate/financial (7%); shows/entertainment/hospitality/travel (7%); publisher (6%); associations/nonprofit/fund raisers (5%); with the rest listed as health care/social services/public administration/government/education/trade; communications/transportation/utility; list broker/compiler/manager; and “other.”

While questions were asked of both b-to-b and consumer marketers, information in the charts covers responses from both groups.