Forrester report says it's time to take social media marketing seriously

A recent Forrester Report called Social Media Playtime is Over, authored by Jeremiah K. Owyang says that the recession offers an opportunity for social media marketing, but that it's time to move beyond experimentation and to incorporate social media marketing into the marketing budget, something that is not the case now. In fact, 45 percent of those responding stated the social media campaigns are paid for on an ad-hoc basis, meaning they are determined as needed.

In spite of the recession and lack of budgetary support, however, 53 percent of those surveyed said they expect to increase their investment in social media applications in the next six months. That represents an opportunity for content management vendors and stand-alone social media tool vendors who are looking for a foot hold in the enterprise.

But Owyang stressed that it's time for marketing departments to take social media marketing and look for ways to prove that it's not mere hype, and "demonstrate how social media is effective during budget trimming." He adds that it's important to look beyond traditional ways of measuring marketing success like page views and "instead focus on how customers have moved farther down the marketing funnel. Measure their awareness through activity, their interest through interaction, and their intent to buy with registration or questions. Focus on measuring based on business objectives, not just traditional Web analytics," he wrote.

Forrester surveyed 145 global interactive marketers in both B2B and B2C companies with more than 250 employees to generate the results in this report. It's worth noting that while Forrester may believe it's time to incorporate social media marketing into the core of your marketing strategies, a recent FierceContentManagement article, Don't forget marketing benefits of social media, quotes another report called the Social Media Marketing Industry report by Michael Stelzner, which found that 72 percent of those surveyed reported they had only been dabbling in social media in the past six months.

This would suggest to me that many companies aren't far enough down the line with social media tools to take it to the level that Forrester recommends just yet, but if your company is further along the implementation curve, you want to take the Forrester report seriously. Others need to find ways to take social media marketing to that next level sooner, rather than later.

For more information:
- see Jeremiah K. Owyang's blog post on the report

Related Articles:
Strategies for implementing social media tools depend on the audience
Web 2.0 and social media continue to transform content management
Content management continues its upward trajectory
ECM and social media are not at odds
Don't forget the marketing benefits of social media