Social media marketers have been plagued with a number of problems in recent years, and it seems that many find it difficult to keep up with the changing objectives. The 2016 State of Social Marketing report from Simply Measured provides valuable insight into the areas marketers need to work on.
Some businesses are becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of how to leverage social media channels. However, 63 percent of businesses using social teams use them for marketing, 16 percent for communications, 5 percent within public relations departments and only 1 percent dedicate social media resources to customer support. Unfortunately, social customer service is definitely an area that continually lacks support, but it can bring great results when integrated into an overall strategy.
Social teams still remain very small. 71 percent of the 350 social media professionals surveyed have up to two employees working for them, while 27 percent have up to 10 people on the social media team. What’s more, social teams lack resources, according to the survey results, probably because businesses still struggle to understand and quantify the value of social media activities.
56 percent of marketers still rely on engagement metrics for indications of success, while only 20.7 percent focused on conversions, which are the better gauge of return on investment. 61 percent of marketers surveyed reported that measuring ROI was their main challenge, 38 percent cited securing budgets and resources and 33 percent cited tying social efforts to business goals. Less than 10 percent reported that they are able to quantify social driven revenue.
Without sufficient budgets, many find solving these problems is also problematic. 42 percent report that budgets are insufficient for all of the software they need to track analytics and publish content, and 34 percent say they have no software budget at all. Additionally, 42 percent say they need more staffing, and 43 percent want more analytics software.
Social media marketing has proved its value many times over, through influencers and personalization, among other advances. Given the evolving nature of well-established platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the new models created by the likes of Snapchat and Pinterest, it’s important to understand what social teams need to be most effective.
Download the full report for more details about the state of specific social networks and how brands can get the most out of their social media efforts.
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