This year is poised to be the year of social content marketing, and brands must remember to monitor their social campaigns. A survey from the Harvard Business Review indicates only 12 percent of companies thought they were effectively using social media at the end of 2010.
The survey asked more than 2,000 senior executives about their corporate social activity. Nearly two-thirds of organizations included in the survey have social campaigns or are planning a social strategy. Still, the majority were uninformed about the efficacy of their social marketing.
Thirty-one percent of respondents said they do not measure the effectiveness of social media. Just 23 percent use social media analytics tools.
The 12 percent of respondents who believed their social strategies were effective use multiple channels, use metrics for reporting and have a set social strategy that is integrated into their overall marketing campaigns. For marketers, these should be taken as best practices that require investment of time and money in social campaigns.
Brafton has reported that marketers cite lack of resources as the leading barrier to social success, but the moment for increased investment may have arrived. In 2011, allocating appropriate resources to planning and measuring social marketing may prove a marketing priority, as eMarketer recently reported that 82 percent of media strategists at multinational companies said they would be investing in brand monitoring this year to evaluate ROI.
