There was an interesting article in Destination CRM this week. Basically it confirms the facts that there is a rise in companies in the United States using social media as a means to get new business. The facts are as follows:
- 50 percent of businesses in the U.S. use Web sites like Twitter to engage, connect with, and inform existing customers.
- In the U.S., 55 percent of firms encourage their employees to join social networks like LinkedIn and Xing.
- 38 percent of U.S. companies dedicate up to 20 percent of their marketing budgets to business social networking activities.
- Globally, the survey reported a 7 percent increase in the proportion of businesses successfully recruiting new customers through social networks like Facebook.
It looks as if social networking has finally started to evolve from a “nice-to-have” to a “necessity” as the majority of businesses in the U.S. (69 percent), and internationally (74 percent) agree that social media activity is playing a bigger role in their marketing strategy. U.S. (64 percent) and global firms (61 percent) are also emphasizing the need for a balance of marketing media, confirming their belief that without a combination of traditional and digital techniques, marketing campaigns will not work.
Companies are realizing that while not yet a real big method for monetization; social networking is becoming a much more important part of the overall “mix” of marketing methods. As I always say however, beware of spending too much money on an evolving method of marketing and lead generation. Do not forget about all of the traditional methods (that still work by the way). Putting all of your eggs in one basket is not a good idea anymore it’s all about testing different mediums and different messages. Most clients I work with today now understand you can use the same message but have different mediums to deliver them to.