Investment in social media set to rise – and so it should
January 18, 2010
I think we can safely say that choices regarding social media are no longer about “should we or shouldn’t we”, but “how do we use it to best effect?”
Just a few Facebook statistics show how important these channels can be, and this is only one media platform:
- In 2009 Facebook passed 350 million active users
- There are now more than 5.3 billion fans across the various causes and organisations listed
- More than 70% of users are outside of the USA (so the rationale that it’s just the Americans who like this sort of thing no longer holds water)
Attitudes to social media as a mainstream communications tool appear to be changing, as research and ideas company Marketing Sherpa’s latest findings suggest. The chart below shows that a large proportion of organisations are prepared to increase their formal investment in social media in a controlled way. In other words, they’re treating social media like any other communications channel.
So, why are organisations more prepared than they were previously to utilise these channels? I think there are a few reasons but crucially, we can all now see some real-world success being enjoyed by businesses and charities as a result of social media. So, the perceived risk of trying something new isn’t quite so significant.
Secondly, we know that truly successful organisations are integrating their activities across a number of communications channels, targeting key audiences and ensuring their social media activity builds on and reinforces their other communications. This results in their key messages being delivered to a wider audience, as well as encouraging more audience feedback than could ever be achieved prior to the arrival of social media. Thanks to the two-way channel of communication it provides, a relationship is being built with the audience through interactivity and we no longer do all the talking.
Thirdly, we need to make our messages visible and take them straight to our audiences. For the marketers amongst us this is just common sense and has been a core tenet of targeting activity for years. One of my favourite real-world examples is Bullying UK, a charity dedicated to supporting victims of bullying and helping to educate those who have to deal with and prevent these situations. The internet and social media are great channels to reach their typically younger target audiences and you will find their presence on Facebook, Twitter and flickr amongst others. The same key messages are also reinforced through poster campaigns, PR (by targeting relevant forums, journalists and media outlets) and events. They don’t have millions of pounds to invest but by integrating their activity across relevant media, their communications achieve real cut-through.
The conclusion is simple, I think; if social media helps you to reach your key audiences and reinforce your key messages, then just do it. There are now plenty of case studies to minimise risk and plenty of experts to help you make the most of a controlled investment. If nearly half the organisations surveyed by Marketing Sherpa are going to invest, you don’t want to be lagging behind, losing supporters and missing media opportunities.
Kevin Baughen, Bottom Line Ideas
8 comments on this post
Great post Kevin. I’ve (perhaps finally!)started to measure social media metrics now that we’ve been using SM for 18 months – 2 years now. I know not all people think measurement is accurate / final right now (and for sure there will be much tighter tools developed in 2010) but I’ve blogged on the topic here (sorry for self-promotion, but I think it’s relevant – honest!): http://robdyson.posterous.com/measuring-the-inside-leg
Rob
Excellent and useful post. I find there’s a particular challenge though for intermediary organisations who are working with other organisations rather than directly with the general public – what benefit do they find from social networking, how can they use it to best effect?
Interesting point Juliet. Rosa- a grant giving body for projects working with women and girls- use Twitter a lot and are also pretty active on Facebook and Flickr.
They seem to use it as tool to increase their profile within the UK community of women’s groups, as a way of encouraging more grant applications. They also use Twitter to support the feminist community more generally by publicising various women’s events etc, so although they aren’t leading campaigns directly they’re still getting involved.
Rosa’s only a year old, so getting their name out there and establishing a presence is a top priority, I imagine. I’m not sure how other intermediary organisations use social media though.
Here are the links so you can see what I mean:
http://www.facebook.com/RosaUK
http://twitter.com/RosaForWomen
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosauk
Hope I’ve understood you correctly…
Thanks for the link Rob I’ll have a look at that. Measurement is of course crucial though not an exact science.
One of the interesting aspects and one of the aspects I love about Social Media is selling what you do through conversation about what you do rather than churning out repeated marketing messages.
Other important aspects for me are connectivity to core supporters, and not getting left out of the conversation about you that is happening whether you know it or not. Without a social media presence you just don’t know what is being said about the org you represent so cannot respond.
I said something not too complimentary on Twitter recently about BT and within a minute they had sent me a message from their customer care team asking if there was anything they could do for me!!
Using it effectively and efficiently is the key but ignore it at your peril!!
Useful thoughts all, thanks. Measuring effectiveness of social media is becoming a bit of an industry in itself. Whilst there are lots of tools around to help count followers, network reach, number of online mentions etc. I would suggest that the true measures of success are actually those which track the uplift on your core performance measures.
A new ’science’ seems to be evolving around this area but even in its early stages, I think there are useful elements for everyone. For example, the models suggested by Heather Holdridge http://bit.ly/bHkn4z) are interesting as they appeal to both the social media convert and the more, perhaps, risk averse Finance Director or CEO…. They try to leverage a more traditional way of thinking to make it relevant to 2010’s activity – always a bonus when you need someone to sign off on budgets.
Sinead – belated thanks for your links, that’s very useful. Yes social networking can be an excellent way of getting an organisation known and Rosa seem to be doing well at it!
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