Businesses Struggle To Understand Social Media Marketing

According to a recent study performed by IBM of more than 1,700 CMOs published on Tuesday. 82% of chief marketing officers still rely on traditional market research to shap marketing strategies, while only 26 percent track blogs and just 40 percent track any online communications.

IBM, as are other large firms and big advertising agencies, is seeking to capitalize on the needs of marketers to analyse data being created and shared on sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube or by email.  Facebook has more than 800 million active users, while Twitter users send about 200 million tweets per day.  The information is out there, but the numbers seem too large to grasp hold of.

“The perfect solution is to serve each consumer individually. The problem? There are 7 billion of them,” said one CMO at a consumer-products firm in the survey.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/11/socialmedia-ibm-idUSL5E7LA3JO20111011

Despite the fact that most CMOs admit to not truly understanding how to utilize or implement a social media marketing plan, some 82% said they planned to increase their use of social media over the next 3-5 years.

While all CMOs understand the value of social media marketing, very few actually understand how social media works and how to implement a plan.

Businesses Struggle to Understand Social Media Marketing | The Challenges

Just last week,  Booz & Company and Buddy Media released the results of a survey (Campaigns to Capabilities: Social Media & Marketing 2011) targeted at leaders of large businesses.  The respondents identified the most critical success enablers for launching a social media marketing campaign:

• Education on what can be achieved via social media
• Training of staff who are not accustomed to using social media
• Ability to adapt and react quickly on social media
• Clearly communicated support from executive management
• Having a clear owner of the project

In summary, in order to implement a successful social media marketing plan, it is imperative that you have the ability to train your staff on how to effectively use social media and provide the technology needed to implement plan in a quick, simple, and efficient manner.

“There are 2 keys to the successful creation and implementation of a successful social media marketing plan,” states other Black Box Social Media co-founder Nick Bridges.  “First, you must have a basic understanding of the social networking sites.  Without this understanding, you can never envision the marketing possibilities.  Second, you must have a simple way to implement your plan.”

In fact, most social media campaigns that fail to live up to expectations fail because of poor implementation.

“Having a software tool that allows you to manage multiple social networking sites at once is a must,” continues Mr. Bridges.  “Being able to schedule your posts in advance, monitor your online reputation, and mail out newsletters to keep in touch with your customers in a quick and simple method is the best way to ensure success in your social media marketing plan.”

Businesses Struggle to Understand Social Media Marketing | The Solutions

Social Media in 7 Minutes (SMI7M) is a revolutionary do-it-yourself online training program designed to not only educate small business owners on how to apply social media into their marketing plan, but also to provide a practical tool (the 7 Minute Dashboard) to allow them to implement their marketing plan in just 7 minutes a day.

The 7 Minute Dashboard allows the user to communicate with all it’s Twitter Fans, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, etc… from one location. You can schedule out posts on each social media site for the next couple of months. You will also be able to schedule customer birthday wishes to your Facebook Fans, create and schedule newsletters, send text message reminders, and update your blog posts by using this one simple tool. The ease and convenience of the 7 Minute Dashboard will allow the small business user to implement their social media marketing plan in just 7 minutes per day.

For more information on the all in one social media marketing program Social Media In 7 Minutes, please visit http://SocialMediaIn7Minutes.com.

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