When it somes to social media, most marketers’ appetites are bigger than their stomach. Although social media tops their tactical chart, few will have the resources it takes to be effective.
According to a recent poll conducted by Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing, marketers are focusing on social marketing tactics as a means of offsetting reduced budgets and raised accountability in the current economy.
Lee’s survey of more than 500 marketers revealed plans for the top 10 digital marketing tactics in 2009:
- Blogging (34%)
- Microblogging (Twitter) (29%)
- Search engine optimization (28%)
- Social network participation (Facebook, LinkedIn) (26%)
- Email marketing (17%)
- Social media monitoring & outreach (17%)
- Pay per click (14%)
- Blogger relations (12%)
- Video marketing (10%)
Translation: Most marketers will dabble and abandon social media marketing tactics in 2009.
Why? Effective social media marketing requires resources — just like everything else. Social marketing tactics are free… like a puppy.
When someone gives you a puppy for free, they’re really giving you an estimated $16,300 of expenses that will be paid throughout a dog’s life. You need to invest in training, boarding, medical care, food, grooming and everything else that’s related to owning your free puppy throughout its life.
Social marketing is the same way. It can’t be pursued as a means of cost savings or free marketing. Instead, it needs to be viewed as an ongoing investment for understanding, attracting, retaining and understanding customers.
Marketers can blog, microblog, video market and create their presence of social networks easily. However, getting customers and prospects to participate often requires investing a substantial amount of money, time, and energy.
“By now, most companies (we hope) have their 2009 online marketing plans in place,” Lee said. “Whether those methods of reaching and communicating with customers reconciles with existing marketing plans or not, companies would do well to allocate resources to some level of ongoing education, testing and development of expertise in the social media space.”
I encourage marketers to view social media, SEO and PR as an investment in their company’s FUTURE marketing efforts. The benefits that most companies get from these efforts today are the result of the investments they’ve made in the past.
Like SEO and PR, social media isn’t free — but it can be effective. It can be efficient. It also can provide a high return on investment…but not immediately.
Companies that launch aggressive social marketing tactics with reduced resources and raised accountabilities are likely to fail and their efforts are likely to be left at the roadside, with a whimper.
Credits: Cartoon by Peter Steiner published by The New Yorker, July, 1993. This cartoon is infamous and reportedly generated more than $50k in reprint rights for Steiner. Regretfully, my contribution is only in the form of attribution. I wanted to link the Steiner’s website directly, but couldn’t find it.
Courtesy of Animal Planet, here’s an example of what happens when you put social media and puppies together. Enjoy!
About Troy Janisch