A new survey by Web optimization firm Coremetrics finds that growing numbers of marketing professionals are looking favorably on social media marketing as a way to give their brands a competitive edge.
But for the moment, “looking” is the only thing most are doing. Many firms aren’t yet committing time or ad budget to the social network channel.
Coremetrics’ second annual “Face of the New Marketer” survey polled 116 senior marketing executives from the top U.S. e-commerce and online media companies on their use of social media such as user-generated content (including product reviews), RSS feeds, podcasts and wikis.
Seventy-eight percent of the group said they recognize that social media play an increasingly vital part of an integrated campaign. Nevertheless, the group reported that they allocate on average a mere 7.8% of their online marketing budget to social media, compared to 33% on online advertising and 28% to online promotion, design and implementation.
On the other hand, 58% told Coremetrics they had added user-generated content or reviews to their sites in the preceding year. Another 31% said they had launched a company-related blog, while 25% said they had implemented an RSS feed to keep users abreast of new Web information quickly.
Most participating marketers said they had concrete plans to roll out social media marketing at some point, if not necessarily within the next year. The biggest roadblock to action, they reported, was a lack of tools and in-house expertise.
“Marketers are aware of the impact that social media marketing can have on their overall program, but view it is uncharted territory, not worthy of their budget,” said John Squire, Coremetrics’ senior vice president of product strategy and general manager of marketing services, in a statement. “The ability to accurately monitor the [return on investment] achieved by new marketing tools will help marketers take that first step toward incorporating new digital marketing programs.”
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