A study by Creston (creston.com), a marketing insights research firm based in London, found that among 250 marketing professionals they questioned 80% said social media has no impact on their brands. But agencies are betting on the new player, and with good reason: the amount of time youth spend using social media is on the rise.
Though we aren’t sure how effective a study can be if it only had 250 respondents, the results are surprising. According to MobiAdNews:
— More than 80% of UK marketers say Social Media doesn’t have any impact on their brands
— Nearly 2/3 don’t have a social media strategy for their company
— Still 2/3 of respondents say their company boards don’t understand social media
— The majority, “88% think that the Board chooses not to support it”
— Just 1/3 of respondents felt that it was their responsibility to ‘take the lead’ on developing their company’s social media strategy
On The Contrary
But that study is fairly well bashed to pieces by an Alterian report that found 66% of respondents will be investing in social media this year.
“Of those, 40 percent said they would be shifting more than a fifth of their traditional direct marketing budget towards funding their SMM activities,” reports TechCrunch. Another 36% will invest in social media monitoring tools. This all falls in line with the move toward what TC calls a “multi-channel” approach to marketing — or what we refer to as cross-channel, multi-media, et al.
The survey questioned 1068 marketing professionals worldwide, 98% of which were in the US and Europe. Only 2% were in Asia Pacific regions.
Kids Absorbing More Social Media
For brands focusing on youth markets, social media is far-and-away an area their target demographics play. You know this, but a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation proves it, reports CNET: “Kids spend an average of one hour and 29 minutes a day using a computer “for entertainment purposes,” up from one hour, 2 minutes in 2004.”
“Social networking was the most popular computer use accounting for an average of 22 minutes a day. The average was 29 minutes among 11- to 14-year-olds and 26 minutes for teens 15 to 18. “In a typical day,” the study pointed out, ‘40% of young people will go to a social networking site, and those who do visit these sites will spend an average of almost an hour a day (:54) there.’ Fifty-three percent of 15- to 18-year-olds use social-networking sites.”
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More: “Gareth Kay: ‘What Social Media Revolution?’”
What Agencies Are Doing About It
In the US, sentiments among marketers are assumed to be stronger. Take for example the news last week that Austin based Powered Inc. acquired three social media shops: Crayon, Drillteam Marketing and StepChange Group.
Other social media firms have taken steps to stay independent, like MIR, which we’ve heard was almost nabbed by TBWA\Chiat\Day, though no one from the social media shop would confirm it. What it suggests though is that major marketing firms in the US are looking at least to buy social media capabilities. And with the right new business people, they shouldn’t have trouble selling it to clients.