Despite this, 76% of the surveyed organizations admit not having a return on the money they invest in the channel Real investment remains modest: 33% invests more than 5,800 dollars per year and 29% of companies say they have no internal staff dedicated to this area.
Although investment in online social media will increase next year, British companies do not acquire the budgetary and cultural commitments necessary to maximize the potential of this channel. This is the main conclusion that emerges from the second edition of the study prepared jointly by Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia, specialist in digital marketing since 1997 and one of the leading online marketing agencies, on public relations and online social media, Social Media and Online PR Report 2010.
The study reveals that 73% of companies currently invest more resources than last year in online social media, and a large majority expresses confidence that budgets will increase again for 2011. However, with 76% of the companies surveyed that admit not having a return on the money they invest in the channel and with more than two thirds that recognize the need to improve their techniques in online social media, it is clear that the use made by British companies this channel is far from perfect.
“Although it is true that the sector has matured in the last twelve months, there is still a great margin for improvement.” As a general rule, companies and their agencies continue to be self-critical about their tactics with social media. they need to improve their channel approach strategies, “says David Hardy, marketing director of bigmouthmedia.
The report shows that, although 83% of companies expect spending on online social media to grow next year, the actual outlay remains very modest: more than 28% of companies surveyed say they do not allocate items to the marketing in online social media and 33% keep investing less than 5,000 pounds a year. On the other hand, 29% of the companies that participated in the survey said they did not have internal personnel dedicated to this area.
For many, this lack of investment is harmful. In fact, around half of the participating companies (49%) maintain that the lack of resources is the main barrier to success in this channel and 30% affirm that lack of budget is a major problem.
Another aspect that highlights the report is the difficulty that many companies have to integrate activities related to social media online and other areas of the company such as sales, public relations, CRM, product and service development, human resources and customer service. . Despite the proven benefits of cross-platform integrated campaigns, most of the companies surveyed are now coordinating activities in online social media with emailing and search engine optimization and approximately 7% of companies integrate their social media channel online with the advertising they do on television.
“It is clear that companies need to analyze their existing corporate culture and think about how they can incorporate the benefits of online social media, but there are signs in the market that this process is already underway. 41% of the executive management of the companies shows more interest on issues related to online social media than for other marketing issues, they have managed to capture the attention of the management team and this will be a key factor when it comes to giving continuity to the commercial development, “adds Hardy.
The research director of Econsultancy, Linus Gregoriadis, explains that “2010 was a year in which companies have tried to focus more on the marketing of online social media. Much of the activity they have done has focused on the use of Twitter and Facebook. The vast majority of companies have used these sites as part of their online social media strategy. 83% of respondents said they use Twitter and 80% Facebook. Today, departments such as marketing, sales, customer service, product development and other more recent creation such as location-based marketing and social gaming use these sites; however, the figures show that there are still few companies that really get involved.”
Social Media and Online PR Report
The Social Media and Online PR Report is the most comprehensive report on the strategies, tactics and websites that companies use to make the most of online social media from the point of view of marketing, sales, customer service and other business objectives . The study is based on the survey of more than 800 companies and agencies between August and September 2010. Participating companies include communication and digital marketing professionals as well as digital and public relations agencies.
This is the second edition of this report, which aims to give an overview of what companies are doing with online social media in order to compare their strategy in terms of budgets, allocation of resources, metrics, etc.