Social Media Marketing Survey Lack of Time, Resources Greatest Hindrance to Social Media Marketing

Internet Marketing & Technology

Marketers and other business decision makers who struggle with a lack of time and resources for social media marketing may need to reconsider how they view and approach the practice, according to this survey by R2integrated (R2i). When R2i surveyed marketing professionals from several leading industries on social media marketing, 45 percent stated that time and resources would be their greatest combined challenge in 2011. Fortytwo percent stated that time and resources were the greatest barriers to entry into social media, and 38 percent that their biggest mistake with social media was not allocating proper time and resources. One possible reason for this conundrum may stem from companies trying to be all things to all people in all places, which is simply a time and resource impossibility for programmatic social media marketing. By optimizing scale and relevance within their social media programs, marketers can better devise and execute on activities that are necessary for effective social media marketing, such as strategy development, headcount allocation, and content creation. R2integrated conducted this survey from November 5 – 19, 2010 with 2 96 respondents.

what percentage of your marketing budget will be allocated to social media marketing in 2011?

20-40 25.7%

40-60 8.4%

60-80 2.7% 80-100 1.4% 0-20 61.8%

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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please rank: what marketing channels do you intend to focus on the most (7) and the least (1)? 100% 80% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

60% 40% 20% 0%

Search

E-mail

Social Media

Online Display

Advertising

Mobile

Website

how do you/your company generally react to social media technologies? We focus on the basics: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin

43.9%

Skeptical of them, slow to adopt

15.5%

Unimportant - don’t want or have to do it

1.7% Can’t stand social media but know it’s important and need to do it

7.8%

Apathetic

1.7% Embrace them, quick to adopt

29.4%

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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what do you think is the greatest barrier to entry into social media? Not sure where to begin

Time / resources

8.4%

41.6%

Skepticism of return

20.9%

Executive buy in Too many platforms to decide

12.2%

10.8% Learning the technology

6.1%

does your company have a defined social media marketing strategy? No 56.1%

Yes 43.9%

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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does your company plan to hire dedicated staff to manage your social media marketing? No, already have dedicated staff

28.7%

Won’t know until 2011

15.2%

No 45.6%

Yes 10.5%

please rank which social media tools your company uses the most (9) and the least (1): 100% 80% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

60% 40% 20% 0%

Facebook

LinkedIn Twitter

Foursquare MySpace

YouTube

Flickr

Slideshare Groupon

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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please rate your company’s skill level on the following social media tools: 100% 80% 60% Novice Intermediate Expert

40% 20% 0%

Facebook

LinkedIn Twitter

Foursquare MySpace

Flickr

YouTube

Slideshare Groupon

do you plan to investigate or invest in any of the following technologies in 2011? 100% 80% 60%

Don’t know what this is No Yes

40% 20% 0%

Augmented Reality

Social Buying

Geo Location

QR Codes

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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what is your company using social media for primarily? Lead generation / business development

27.0%

Customer Relations

12.2%

Publishing content

Not using

31.1%

9.8%

Monitoring Our Brand Listening to our conversations 9.1%

10.8%

how do you measure the success of social media marketing primarily? Website traffic from social media links

The quality of conversations

7.8%

27.7%

Leads

18.9% Engagements / conversations about your brand

24.7%

Fans / followers acquisition

20.9%

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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using social media, have you been able to make a conversion from initial connection to sale? No 38.5%

Getting Close

25.3%

Yes 36.1%

what is the single, biggest mistake you have made with social media? Not setting a realistic budget

2.4%

Not allocating proper time / resources

37.8%

Not defining goals/ objectives

22.3%

Not having a strategy

29.7%

Not setting proper expectations with executives

7.8%

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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what do you anticipate to be your greatest challenge with social media marketing 2011? Time and resources

44.6%

Keeping up with the technology

9.5%

Differentiating from competitors

12.8%

Demonstrating ROI

33.1%

how old are you? 45-55 25.3%

35-45 34.8%

55+ 9.1%

25-35 26.4%

18-25 4.4%

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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what is your role in the company?

Marketing

37.2%

IT Management

10.8%

Developer

6.8%

Administration

5.4% Executive

39.9%

what type of industry do you work in?

Other B2B 37.2%

Other B2C 22.0%

Government 6.4%

Finance 6.4% IT 17.9%

Retail 5.7% Healthcare 4.4%

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]

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about r2integrated R2integrated (R2i) is a leading Internet marketing and technology agency that helps companies distribute and manage content across online communities (publish), create rich, sharable experiences (engage), build and foster social customer relationships (connect), and analyze buying behavior and optimize accordingly (understand). R2i clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies from various industry verticals. Privately-owned, R2i is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland with offices in New York City, Northern Virginia, Seattle, and St. Louis. For more information about the company visit www.r2integrated.com

© 2010 R2integrated.com | Locations in New York, NY • Baltimore, MD • Vienna, VA • St. Louis, MO • Seattle, WA | [email protected]