Despite all the buzz about social media these days only 49% of marketers have fully integrated it into their internet marketing strategy. This is according to a study done by Forrester Research based on 99 CMOs and marketing VPs in February of this year. The odd thing is that the same study also reveals that the same people are very aware that social media is extremely important. 92% agree that social media has “fundamentally changed how consumers engage with brands.” And yet less than half are actually using it fully in their marketing strategy.
Tracy Stokes principal analyst for Forrester, says marketers are just now “stepping back to see how the jigsaw fits into their marketing plan.” Although it is encouraging that they accept the importance of social media why are they not starting to integrate it yet? Luckily this leaves the door wide open for startup social media marketing companies to swing in and provide an important service that ad agencies seem to be neglecting.
In the rest of the report Stokes reports that 59% of online consumers are active on social media sites and a third of them have become fans of a brand on Facebook or Twitter. This number could easily swell though if companies knew what they were doing and had proper social media marketing strategies in place. The most telling statement in the whole report is that half of the marketers polled agreed with the statement “Social media has the potential to build my brand, but I’m not sure how to capitalize on it.”
Is your marketing company letting you down with social media? Need some help developing a powerful and effective social media strategy? Contact Wikimotive for a free evaluation of your current process as well as advice and help with changing it for the better.