Let’s start the year with a quick report on a survey released over the holidays wich you might have missed (the study, not the holidays – hope you had great ones!). It comes from InSites Consulting via eMarketer and the report begins with the understatement of the year (which at this point is pretty easy to be). The topic is social media, something that as we enter 2012 is not a “what” but a “how” issue for most businesses. But let’s start at the beginning.
Here’s the understatement: “Integrating social media into overall business processes is a challenge for many companies.” Well, yeah, but at least folks – most folks anyway – are trying:
only 14% of respondents said their companies had completely integrated social media into their business processes. Meanwhile, 23% were working to integrate social media, 24% were in a pilot phase of social media, 26% were taking their first steps and 12% were doing nothing with social media.
So they’ve got that going for them, and they can always hire someone (ahem…) if they need help. Then again, maybe they’re really doing nothing more than paying this channel lip-service:
Marketers also cited the top barriers to integration of social media, with 48% saying their company did not believe there were financial benefits, 42% believing that their products and services were not suited for social media and 39% responding that their company lacked top management support.
That’s a problem. I suppose they’ve not thought through the financial benefits of customer service, primary consumer research, or competitive analysis, all of which can come from well-executed social media. Further, I guess they don’t really have customers, since in my mind you as a company want to be wherever your customers are, and nearly everyone is on some form of social media these days. I think the real reasoning may lie in the third point: there’s no management imperative and, therefore, no reason to rock the boat. Pity.
A few years ago, not many companies were using digital media for marketing at all. Go back 60 years and the transition from advertiser support from radio to TV was just kicking in. My guess is that we’ll see the same with social a year from now and that 39% is going to feel kind of dumb. What’s your guess?
Consult Keith 