Phil Lauterjung

Social media continues to receive a lot of press.  Today eMarketer had an article “Why You Need a Strategy for Social Media.” I wonder if someone there had read my last post on this topic?  Probably not, but I can dream can’t I?  Their lead point was that no one is asking if they should have a strategy, but how and where should they participate.

Any one who has followed this blog knows that I don’t have any argument with their premise.  However, as they do with almost everything they post, they had a graph showing the reasons that U.S. marketers use social media.  The graph was from a study done last July by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law titled: “Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks.”

I’m not sure the size breakdown of the companies surveyed, but I found the results seemed to be slanted toward larger companies.  Let me show you the chart and then I’ll explain why I found the results to be peculiar.

It’s not much of a surprise that brand-building and networking are at the top; but I was surprised at the low percentages for competitive monitoring (25%) and research (19%).  Those are two very easy and inexpensive tasks that you can use to your advantage with social media.  It appears that the majority of the marketers surveyed still see the primary purpose of their job to be building and promoting their brand.  This is further indication that there is still a disconnect between marketing and sales in a lot of companies.

The eMarketer article had a very insightful quote from Brian Solis, founder and principal of FutureWorks:

Instead of researching the best ways to engage, many businesses create accounts across multiple social networks and publish content without a plan or purpose.  However, businesses that conduct research will find a rewarding array of options and opportunities.

When companies make sure that there is an alignment of goals and objectives between marketing and sales then those results should be much different.  I didn’t point out that sales prospecting was also below the 25% mark.  When marketing starts paying adequate attention to those three areas a company will see the quality of their leads improve and their sales staff will close more deals with greater profit.  See my series on Integrated Lead Generation for more insight into how all of this should work together.

What about your company?  Are you already involved in using Social Media?  How would you prioritize the reasons listed in the study’s chart?  Would you add any?

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