A very interesting survey was released by PR Week and communications firm, MS&L today, 2009 Social Media Survey. In online interviews with over 200 CMOs, the survey found that most companies did not act upon social media feedback or research to improve their campaigns or products. 70% of senior marketers said that they have never made changes to their products or campaigns in response to their listening efforts. As if that wasn't shocking enough, almost half (43%) wouldn't use social media as part of a marketing program due to lack of knowledge and expertise! Of course, the ROI question was big - 39% said they are not convinced of its value or ROI. Sounds like an opportunity for educating some folks.
October 16th, 2009 - 13:17
I can’t agree with you more that this is an opportunity to educate. The ROI question always seems to come up, but how closely did companies ever track the “ROI” of billboard or magazine ads? Or of changes to packaging design? In my experience, there were always too many different marketing efforts going on at the same time to make it possible to draw real conclusions about which one had the most impact on sales.
What’s the best way to educate C-level execs and other decision-makers?
How about we put together a little seminar like the one I did with Dustin Woodard at ProductCamp: “Search engine optimization and Social Media – what are they and is social media making SEO obsolete?”
P.S. Check out the new Warren Sukernek interview at http://socialmediarealitycheck.com – Thanks Warren!
October 23rd, 2009 - 10:24
Mark,
Excellent points about the need for education of decision makers – couldn’t agree more. I think widespread adoption of social media by the mainstream business press and conferences will help dramatically as well as the “experts” gaining real credibility outside of the fishbowl.
Thanks for the interview, it was a blast.
January 22nd, 2010 - 13:08
Absolutely true. Trying hard to justify our 2010 SM budget to CMO continuously having to defend everything we launch.