Some 70% of marketers cited social as their top priority for 2012, followed closely by content marketing, cited by 59%, according to the State of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas for Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012 report by Awareness.

Most encouraging is the approach that marketers plan to take in the coming year. Having already established and grown their social presences on the major channels (Facebook and Twitter), they now plan to extend their social media strategy to include previously overlooked sites such as YouTube, foursquare and Tumblr.

Content is playing a major role in the growth of social. Pairing both channels has enabled businesses to boost interactivity on their sites with social sharing buttons, with shared content proving ready-made fuel for social marketing efforts.

Along with this enhanced approach from companies comes a fresh focus on active social media management to improve lead generation and sales from social media.

Said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Awareness: “We expect less-experienced marketers to follow their visionary peers, adopting established practices as they move along the maturity continuum.”

Staffing remains one of the key challenges, according to the report. Most of the 320 businesses surveyed employ between one and three people to monitor their social media marketing campaigns, and nearly half (45%) claim to struggle to find qualified talent to manage most of their new media activity.

We’d love to hear if these findings fit with your own experiences and plans for social media activity. Is your business planning to ramp up its strategy this year? Will you be making any additions to your social media team, or are the company purse strings still restrictively tight? Please post your comments below.

Click here to download the free report white paper

It is surprising, then, to see evidence of how many B2B companies are still blind to its possibilities within PwC’s new paper: ‘Uncovering B2B social media: Value innovation and engagement’.

While the findings kick off on a promising note, with confirmation that B2B firms are investing in social media (between $416,000 and $185m), the rest of the results make for frustrating reading. Here are three highlights (or should we say lowlights) from the study:

1. Nearly 50% of respondents are not undertaking any kind of measurement of ROI, or are only using the most basic qualitative measures.

2. Two-thirds of company cultures do not support the use of social media, or offer only basic guidelines to their staff. Such negligence leaves businesses open to reputational risk.

3. Less than 12% of those surveyed have full time, dedicated social media teams in place.

FPR’s Final Thought:

It is a common misconception that social media works best for B2C companies. Business audiences and decision makers are in fact just as readily influenced by their peers, competitors and even brands on social channels.

It is time to think beyond social marketing for retail consumers alone. Relevant and well thought-out messaging targeted on the correct social channels can reap significant rewards for B2B businesses – but only once they implement proper guidelines and measurement systems will they notice.

The full report from PwC can be viewed here.

Nielsen’s State of the Media: The Social Media Report, Q3 2011, offers this titillating profile of the active social networker, along with detailed analysis of the current state of social.

Findings of the new US-based study include the news that blog posts and social network messages reach nearly 80% of Americans and account for nearly one quarter of time spent online. Drilling deeper, we find that social networks take up 22.5% of our online time, trailed in second place by online gaming at 9.8%.

Other top takeaways from Nielsen include:

1. Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other US website. The social site now reaches 70% of active US internet users, who spent 53.5 billion minutes Facebooking in May 2011 alone.

2. Social media users are the most likely to share their opinions and influence others, specifically creating product reviews (60%), swapping views on current affairs (26%) and TV programmes (33%).

3. Importantly, over half (54%) of active social networkers follow a brand online. Ensure your social media strategy captures feedback from this highly vocal and visible group, using this precious mine of information to influence other users.

4. Mobile access to social is growing. In fact, social networking apps are currently the second-most valued apps among US smartphone users. Harness this growing potential to reach shoppers right in the aisles with opinions and reviews that could influence their purchase decisions.

Weaving throughout the raft of facts presented by Nielsen is a sense that as social media advances, its influence on consumer behaviour is growing – both online and offline. For marketers, the impact is clear: it is now more important than ever to understand where and how consumers are interacting with brands and sharing content.

View the complete report here.

A brand new study of 2,500 participants from the New York Times in conjunction with Latitude Research reveals the top 9 reasons (or skip straight to the end for a somewhat surprising Key Takeaway):

1. Your customers don’t trust you

Corporate mistrust is rife. Globally, only 56% of people trust businesses “to do what is right” (Source: 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer), falling in the US, the UK and Japan from 2010 to 2011. People won’t share your content if there is a lack of trust, so use the social space to drive honest and open public conversations.

2. Customers don’t care about your brand

Sorry, but customers are a fickle bunch. If you don’t offer at a minimum: valuable information, great deals and a forum to meet other like-minded people, they will look elsewhere. Don’t just feed them what they want; actively exceed their expectations.

3. Your posts are boring

Intriguing and funny content gets the most shares. Look to Volkswagen for inspiration. Their Star-Wars spoof video ‘The Force’ racked up over 40 million views. Of course, it helps to have an established power brand behind you, but the principle is to create ‘got to share it’ content.

4. Your content lacks passion

Generally speaking, people care about causes more than brands. Whether it’s eradicating poverty, saving the Polar bears or helping a local charity, many people give their time and money to advance things they care about. Your brand may not have a humanitarian cause, but reveal the passion behind your product or service to get people excited about something bigger.

5. People share to build their social networks

Research has found that people value relationships with other people over relationships with brands. Since they’re seeking an online community, you can use your brand to help create a platform for that community. Offer content that facilitates people in finding kindred spirits and then staying connected to those people. Red Bull did just this recently, creating a weekend playlist and inviting people to share YouTube links to their own favourite dance tunes.

6. Consumers, like everyone, seek validation

We’re all still just insecure, gawky teenagers at heart. We want to build credibility in the eyes of our peers, and come across as experts – and content sharing is the perfect medium for both. Some 68% of the New York Times study respondents said they share content as an advertisement for themselves (or to better reveal who they are). Appeal to customers’ vanity by offering intelligent, cool content that will boost their kudos by sharing it.

7. People share to manage information

Social media marketing scientists have found that people process information more “deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully” through sharing it, and also understand and process information better through reading others’ responses to it. Be sure to offer thought-provoking content and invite feedback and comments from your audience.

8. You’ve misunderstood your audience

Think back to marketing school and the concept of a marketing persona. The concept encourages understanding your audience by creating detailed pictures of your ideal target customer. The New York Times study came up with six sharing personas. Interestingly, five of these sharing types actually identified email alongside social channels as a preferred sharing tool.

9. People love to share content via email

This study confirms that social media users have by no means abandoned email. In fact, they see it as a valuable and personal means of sharing content. With this in mind, it may help to look back to last week’s post on integrating social marketing with email.

Key Takeaway:

People’s primary motivation for sharing content is the relationships they have with one another. Therefore, aim to create content that enhances consumers’ relationships with one another rather than with your brand.

Source: Socialmediaexaminer.com

Social media monitoring and analytics have come on leaps and bounds over the past year, making the case for management to shift budgets to social marketing.

We’ve witnessed a bigger focus on real-time search, and welcomed investment into insightful research.

So what trends are going to influence our wonderfully dynamic sector in 2012? Here are a few thoughts from Simon Jones, Digital Visitor’s director of marketing:

1. Social media as a customer service tool

For speed and efficiency of high volume communications, nothing parallels social media. Remember Heathrow Airport’s use of Twitter to placate grounded passengers during last December’s heavy snow? Expect to see more and more organisations wising up to the potential of Twitter in particular for customer service purposes.

2. Creative competitions on social media

Facebook is an ideal medium for competitions. Invest time in making yours exciting and creative enough to grow your online audience while telling your brand and product story. However, take heed of the network’s recent changes to the rulebook – see Digital Visitor’s resource for further info.

3. Social media will have greater impact on search results

Expect to see more real-time, ultra-personalised information in search engine results. We’ve already seen Bing pushing relevant content from users’ personal networks to the top of search results. Then Google unveiled fresh competition by pulling in results from Twiiter, Flickr and other social networks, enabling people to make search decisions based on frends’ recommendations.

4. User reviews and ratings on company websites

Online reviews have been proven to impact on shoppers purchase decisions, so it’s likely that we’ll increasing numbers of businesses gathering and publishing user reviews and ratings.

5. Relevance in social media

Twitter’s revelation that it currently hosts 200 million tweets each day offers some indication of the volume of people flocking to social media channels. As brands rush in their droves to make contact there, it’s more important than ever to ensure that whatever you offer is instantly eye-catching and relevant. Check out this infographic to see why time really is of the essence.

6. B2B sector embraces social media

While B2C marketers were the first to inject some social into their marketing mix, we learnt earlier this year that most B2B marketers use social media marketing at some level, with LinkedIn their favoured channel.

This trend is set to soar as B2B brands realise the impact and benefits of social media marketing for their sector.

Both social media & online content generation polled way ahead of old school media relations expertise which only 16% think is now key to winning new business.

However the poll did reveal a massive disagreement between the older and younger pollsters. In the 45+ age category media relations is considered most important and social media the least.

Search engine optimization came in last with 7%, underlining that clients do not expect SEO to lead the agenda in PR pitches.

Furlong PR CEO Ross Furlong commented; “The poll confirms that age is a massive factor in the perception of ‘new fashioned’ pr techniques. While the young clearly believe a social media ingredient is crucial to winning a PR pitch in 2011, anyone over 45 just as clearly thinks it isn’t. This is disappointing but not surprising. Convincing senior management of its value is the chief obstacle to adoption.”

232 votes were cast in the month long poll conducted on LinkedIn during April 2011. Full results of the poll are available here:

Writing for Clickz.com, interactive media expert Heidi Cohen has mapped out how social media complements consumer needs for different types of content right along the shopping process.

With its multi-format content and connected consumers willing to share feedback and reviews, social media is an important part of the initial research phase. Even though consumers will ask around their social network for advice, it is vital to offer information about your products and company online.

The next stage sees consumers drilling down into specifics and finalising their decisions. They’re still likely to turn to their online peers at this point. Offering detailed product images and customer reviews, as Banana Republic does, will strengthen your position.

At the next step a prospect becomes a customer – but only if they purchase your product. Supplying content which covers delivery, shipping costs, directions, and best prices can help seal the deal. Increasing numbers of people are actually purchasing via social networks, so it’s worth considering setting up a fully functioning Facebook store, as 1-800-Flowers.com has done to great success.

The potential to offer valuable content through social media continues long after a sale is made and can turn a one-time customer into a return shopper, or even a brand advocate. The fourth stage is all about support and enhancing product use. Harness blogs and video content, as did cosmetics brand MAC with its popular YouTube make-up tutorials. Brands can also offer consumers a platform on which to share advice and tips, such as Dell’s community support forum.

The fifth and final phase is advocacy. By creating forums encouraging users to exchange ideas about how they use your products, brands provide a space in which to transform shoppers into fans. Oreo’s Facebook page is one such example, inviting Oreo fans to post photos of themselves enjoying the product, and changing the photo weekly to drive engagement.

Using a service provided by feedback reporting provider Service Tick, customers that have given positive feedback scores following online transactions will be given the option to post comments on social networking sites. Glowing comments can be easily linked through to Facebook and Twitter, where they will generate special promotional offers.

It’s an interesting strategy, especially as only the relatively limited audience of an individual’s social network will see the offers.

According to Service Tick, one of the unique properties of its Social Advocate service is that it operates in real time – prompting customers to comment at the precise moment when they’re feeling warm towards a brand.

“In the past, we’ve seen attempts by organisations to get their marketing messaging out to customers via the social networks, but consumers see straight through them as it’s not what the networks are about. At best, the campaigns simply fail – at worst, they can damage a brand,” said Kevin Goodings, managing director at ServiceTick.

Aviva is currently using other channels, including television, to emphasise its customer service. The question is whether users of social media will warm to brands using the medium to tell one side of their story.

In contrast to Aviva’s filtering approach, First Direct opted to aggregate both positive and negative comments via a microsite in 2009.

While traditional online tactics – website, search and email rank highly amongst marketers, expectations for social media marketing are high with 62% of online B2B marketers planning to increase budgets in this area.

The research from BtoB magazine and featured in eMarketer this week reveals that more than two-thirds of those surveyed already use social media marketing tactics (as of December 2010), although their objectives varied.

The most popular use of social media marketing by far, was for brand building (80%). This was followed by ‘thought leadership’ (54%) – notably only 47% of respondents cited social media as a tactic for lead generation.

The findings are remarkably similar to the statistics released from MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.

The report provides insight on increasing and decreasing marketing budgets and the impact on tactics. Information gathered from more than 1100 marketers surveyed, indicate that marketing strategies continue to evolve from outbound to inbound tactics.

Findings from the report again indicate website, search, social media and email as the four key areas of marketing investment.