Internet Marketers Ignoring Most Effective Social Media Tactics?
By Anna Johnson on January 12th, 2010A September 2009 MarketingProfs survey indicates that many Internet marketers may be missing the boat when it comes to harnessing the true power of social media.
As reported by eMarketer, the MarketingProfs survey of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) Internet marketers found that while most Internet marketers sought to use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter for lead generation or sales… the same marketers had much better results when using social media for OTHER marketing objectives, such as surveying their fans and dealing with PR problems.
In fact, a lot of Internet marketers may be deluding themselves if the mis-match between the most popular marketing tactics… and the most EFFECTIVE marketing tactics… is anything to go on.
According to MarketingProfs, the most common marketing tactic that B2C Internet marketers used on Facebook was posting status updates and friending customers in order to drive traffic to their sites. The most effective tactic, however, was creating a Facebook application, which was done by less than a quarter of total respondents.
Meanwhile, both B2C and B2B Internet marketers found that conducting surveys of their Facebook fans was successful (cited by 37.1 percent and 37.9 percent of B2C and B2B marketers respectively), yet fan surveys were just the third-most-common tactic attempted.
On Twitter, Internet marketers predominately sought to either drive traffic or sales by posting links to promotional offers on their sites. The most effective tactic, however, was monitoring Twitter for PR problems in real time. 46.9 percent of B2C marketers and 40.7 percent of B2B marketers said doing so was successful… yet only a half of all respondents engaged in this tactic.
Similarly, while only 22.4 percent of Internet marketers used Twitter to contact users who posted negative comments about their brand, 44 percent of B2C marketers and 36.7 percent of B2B marketers deemed tis to be a successful tactic.
None of this is to say that Internet marketers can’t successfully use Facebook, Twitter or any other social network to generate leads or sales (as previous examples discussed in Kikabink News have shown). Nor should any one company or Internet marketer assume that what does or doesn’t work for other Internet marketers will or won’t work for them.
A general rule may be, however, that social media is much better for achieving marketing objectives OTHER THAN lead generation or sales.
Source: eMarketer, “What’s Working for Social Media Marketers?” eMarketer, January 5, 2010
