March 14, 2011
Social Media Management Won’t Get Easier This Year
Don’t look now, but the implementation of annual budgets and strategic marketing blueprints for 2011 is well underway. Forrester Research gazed into their crystal ball in mid 2010 with their Midyear Planning: Predictions For 2011 and identified a few trends.
Given the influence of multi-channel marketing, the dominant theme in Forrester’s report was multi-channel planning, including the role of social media in the newer interactive marketing initiatives.
Now that we’ve had a few months to see how things are playing out, let’s check the reality against some of the predictions.
- Social media allows everybody in the organization to speak for and represent the brand, which pushes brand management outside the marketing silo. Forrester says this silo switch offers interactive marketers the opportunity to use social media initiatives to integrate departments, coordinate social platforms and policies, build cross-team budgets, and develop technologies to collaborate with customers.
- Mobile may be on the radar, but Forrester notes that cautious marketers aren’t jumping into this proven channel just yet, with few marketers expecting to increase mobile spends in 2011. Geolocation technologies, which can join a consumer’s real-time location with brand preference, show promise, but also are unlikely to go mainstream this year.
- Experienced social marketers are frustrated by the complexity of managing and listening to the variety of social media channels. Key to resolution are simple technologies that can bring the many voices into one place for listening and managing.
- Social media has proven too hot to handle without dedicated attention. As social media is expected to grow to a 34% compound annual growth rate over the next four years, interactive marketing teams will be hiring “community managers” to oversee the demands of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and community sites.
- With new-customer sales top of mind in most organizations, investments in social and mobile marketing will be a struggle – which is why successful multichannel interactive marketing strategies this year must include the active participation of multiple stakeholders in the sales department.
In short, as technological innovation proceeds at a frenzied pace, both planning and budgeting will fly in the same hurricane. Hold onto your hats – and your traditional, measurable, effective direct mail programs.
