Social media may be a quick way for brands to reach a broad audience, but a new survey suggests that fast results are not the product of hasty efforts. The results of an R2integrated survey reveal that brands identify failure to allocate proper time and resources into social campaigns as the leading barriers to success.
Thirty-eight percent of marketers said that their biggest mistake in social campaigns was not devoting enough resources to campaigns. Moving into 2011, nearly half of respondents (45 percent) said that time and resources would likely be the biggest challenges to social success.
More than half of marketers (62 percent) plan to allocate 20 percent of their overall budgets into social media next year.
For many of the participants, it seems increased social funds may come in the form of more investment in content for social sites. The study found that the majority of marketers (31 percent) use social channels to publish content.
Matt Goddard, CEO of R2i, explains that most of the marketers surveyed said they "understand the basic need to provide useful content to social spaces." He believes lackluster social results described by some respondents indicate that brands must "hone and better target conversation content, thereby making better use of marketers' time and resources and increasing overall social media effectiveness."
This survey is consistent with Brafton's earlier report that social content marketing is poised to become a priority in 2011 – not to mention a competitive necessity. Seventy-three percent of companies offer original content on social sites.
