A new study shows that lack of sufficient time and resources continue to present social media marketers with the biggest headache rather than lack of strategy or objectives.
The study from social media marketing solutions firm R2integrated in November 2010, shows that of those surveyed, more than two in five said that time and resources was the greatest barrier to social media marketing. Return on investment was also a concern.
The findings indicate that although companies in the first instance are attracted by relatively low initial costs of a social media programme, internal time and resources to maintain and monitor a company’s online presence is often under estimated.
Matt Goddard, CEO at R2integrated, quoted in eMarketer said “Most marketers understand the basic need to provide useful content to social spaces, but they aren’t able to keep up with the ongoing publishing demands, and don’t know how to manage conversations around their content within a community of interest.”
The demands of producing relevant online content to engage consumers, is not a problem that is going away soon, since consumer demand to engage with the content and share it with others continues to grow. However there could be an answer for the savvy marketer in 2011 according to another survey … 55% of companies outsource content marketing,
68% of companies say they are shifting from traditional forms of marketing to branded content, including 61% who reported a moderate shift and 7% who said their shift was “aggressive” according to an eMarketer report.
The branded content refered to in the study covers material ranging from blogs, online video, Twitter promo or Facebook page, to ads and online gaming.The main consideration is that consumers genuinely want to engage with the content and share it with others; that it is entertaining and of interest, rather than interuptive and annoying.
The findings relate closely to a recent survey from King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42 – the 2010 Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability” study, which showed 73% of US companies with a social media strategy using branded content in their campaigns. More »
According to a post on Junta 42′s blog today, 55% of marketers are outsourcing at least some part of their content marketing.
A full report is to follow but the sneak preview further shows that companies with 1000+ employees are 60% more likely to outsource content marketing than micro companies (less than 5 employees).
While understandable, the post suggests that all companies should be outsourcing part of their content marketing for the following reasons:
1) Someone out there will have better ideas than you do.
2) You don’t have time to do everything.
3) You will not be as focussed as your appointed content marketing agency would be.
Thanks to Aeneas McDonnell from The Economist for sharing this great video ‘Did you know?’ about the changing media landscape, at the EPublishing Innovation Forum yesterday.
Maile Ohye, manager of Google’s Webmaster Central Blog, laid out her blueprint for a social media, content and SEO optimised website in an interview with TopRank’s online marketing blog last week.
The question that caught our attention was to do with how she sees the role of social media within website marketing activity, particularly in relation to SEO.
Here’s what she said:
“I think having a solid site: great content, good experience for users (intuitive navigation, responsive), descriptive page titles, standardized URL structure, etc., is of primary importance. A strong site is the foundation where you’ll likely make your online conversions. Once this foundation is established, the social media approach helps drive traffic, builds excitement (and inbound links), that you’ll be able to capitalize on with your solid site.”
A cautionary tale for publishers looking to build paywalls around online editorial content from Nielsen, whose latest survey of 27,000 consumers in 52 countries shows 79% will not pay, assuming that content is available elsewhere.
However, consumers will pay for movies, music and games, which top the rankings of things we will pay for online.
Blogs and consumer generated video ranked lowest of all and were generally expected to be free.
The research firm found that consumers expect content to meet certain criteria before they are willing to pay for with 78% saying they should get free online access if they already subscribe to a newspaper, magazine, radio or TV service.
Nielsen found that 47% of respondents are willing to accept more advertising to subsidise free content. In turn, 64% believe that if they must pay for content, there should be no ads.
Speaking at the Government’s digital creative industry conference C&binet (surely they meant C@binet) late yesterday, Simon Fuller, Spice Girls’ creator said that content providers were the key to future success online.
Fuller describes digital media as a “war zone” where creative ideas will dominate. He referred to his own operation, 19 Entertainment, as a “bespoke aggregator”. “The next big idea could come from some kid in India. That’s the way it should be – I’m excited,” he said, quoted in The Guardian.
Fuller said that while he believed certain companies – such as Google and Microsoft – have a “big head start” in online there is still room for many players in the emerging digital media market. More »
I truly think Scots are taking over the world, they’re everywhere. Gordon Brown, Susan Boyle, my girlfriend, the plumber yesterday and then of course there’s Mashable, the incrediably successful social media guide with 1.5 million twitter followers and 254,000 RSS feeds - made in Scotland, from servers.
Mashable has just posted their top 5 business blogging mistakes and already has 17 comments. So foolishly I’m going head to head with my own. Come on big man, let’s see what you’ve got (cue Victorian boxer type shuffle and arm movements). More »
Earlier this week OLA’s Internet Activity Indexrevealed content led sites are still king online with a 24% increase in share since 2003 with communications and commerce sites falling behind. -41% & -19% respectively.
And then on Friday, NMA broke the story that the UK’s second biggest advertiser, P&G is introducing a payment by engagement model for publishers whereby they are remunerated by the number of sign-ups to newsletters or video views.
2-0 to those of us looking to promote content and engagement this week then – email marketers, bloggers, social media networkers, Twitterers and status updaters More »
A new study shows that lack of sufficient time and resources continue to present social media marketers with the biggest headache rather than lack of strategy or objectives.
68% of companies say they are shifting from traditional forms of marketing to branded content, including 61% who reported a moderate shift and 7% who said their shift was “aggressive” according to an eMarketer report.
A cautionary tale for publishers looking to build paywalls around online editorial content from Nielsen, whose latest survey of 27,000 consumers in 52 countries shows 79% will not pay, assuming that content is available elsewhere.
Speaking at the Government’s digital creative industry conference 
I truly think Scots are taking over the world, they’re everywhere. Gordon Brown, Susan Boyle, my girlfriend, the plumber yesterday and then of course there’s Mashable, the incrediably successful social media guide with 1.5 million twitter followers and 254,000 RSS feeds - made in Scotland, from servers.
Earlier this week OLA’s 