Sometimes it seems business in general and small business in particular have an aversion to spending a decent amount of their marketing budget for online social marketing. But if the results of a survey from Marketing Sherpa are to be believed there is a lot of cash being spent in many different areas.
It can be hard to see the benefits in Social Media spending if you have a small web footprint, a large company will quickly gather statistics to show what is working and what’s not working. Bookmarking and Tweeting five times a week won’t bring home the gravy and may sour the CEO to spading more money. Small business needs to figure out what the benefits of social marketing are within their niche and then commit to an ongoing set of tactics to reach their goals, peace-meal just won’t smooth out lumpy gravy.
This chart clearly shows participation (hands on) is recognized as very important to social marketing success. And I’m sure any serious company plan defines participation as an active activity as aposed to the passive signing up and forgetting to return type. Social is just that “social.’ Social Marketing is building relationships within your niche and with your customers.
Marketing Sherpa makes the excellent point about strategy when they say it “must outlast the revolving door of leading social media technologies.” Things change at a blistering pace in the online world of social marketing and you need to keep both hands on the rudder.
