Social Media Marketing Experiences Growing Pains

Last year, Unica's annual survey of marketers revealed some key concerns: an overall shift to online marketing; a greater emphasis on website personalization; and a general dissatisfaction with IT support for marketing's technology needs. This year's survey of 279 online and direct marketing professionals found continued interest in many of the same issues, plus: a more urgent need to turn data into action; increasing recognition of mobile's marketing power; and a desire for more integrated technology solutions.

Once again this year, social media ranks as the champion among emerging marketing channels, with 53 percent currently applying it to their marketing efforts. But marketers' enthusiasm is burning less brightly than last year, suggesting that we have passed the peak of inflated expectations and are focused on finding the value that social channels can yield.

Third party social network sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, ranked highest on the list of social media marketing options in this year's survey at 60 percent. Microblogging (i.e., Twitter), social sharing links, and blogs are all also popular. On the far leading edge, location-based services, currently only used by 20 percent of marketers, represent the convergence of social and mobile marketing.

The Three Types of Media Marketers Must Manage
As certain tactics emerge and fade from popularity, a more sophisticated approach to social media is emerging. Instead of thinking tactic by tactic, marketers are beginning to think strategically across three major areas of social content. Taking an overview of all three — relative to their traditional media equivalents — may be a good first step to an enterprise-wide social media marketing strategy.

Owned: Media, content and channels that the company directly delivers, has control over, or owns. For example:

• Traditional – direct mail, call center, branch/store, ATM/kiosk/POS
• Digital – email, website, microsites, blog, Facebook

Earned: Delivered through a third party without exchange of payment. While your control factor is low, credibility is high. Examples include:

• Traditional – public relations generated news, analyst coverage
• Digital – Twitter, blogs, product reviews

Paid: The most familiar terrain for most marketers. This is delivered through a third party or intermediary in exchange for payment. For example:

• Traditional – TV, radio, print, out-of-home
• Digital – display ads, PPC, sponsored content

FREE DOWNLOAD: THE STATE OF MARKETING 2011

Use the form below for a free download of the comprehensive report on the Unica survey of marketers. We also welcome your inquiries and feedback on the topics discussed in this Tip.