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Using Social Media Strategically
A recent study by eMarketer & MarketingSherpa shows how marketing organizations are leveraging social media strategically in their efforts moving forward. It also examines which industries are planning to increase or decrease their social media budgets in 2010.
Some interesting charts regarding social media usage and budgeting is allocated in the charts below. As you can see, social media can be leveraged in a number of different ways, ranging from the most commonly predicted areas (such as generating leads, or additional web traffic) through to better managing and offsetting customer support issues.
When it comes to developing a social networking strategy, your organization should understand that there is no "one size fits all" mentality that can be taken. Each organization is different and will require a unique strategy custom built for their own needs/requirements.
With that said, however, nearly all social media strategies will require two things:
- A consistent message across all users representing a brand
- A personal touch
- A listening strategy
As you can see, social media can be leveraged as an extension of your search engine marketing efforts, something that New Media Gateway is uniquely qualified to assist you with (as we are Google Analytics Authorized Consultant and Google AdWords certified providers).
When developing a budget line item for social media expenditures in 2010, you may want to consider what your colleagues in your industry are doing, who responded to the same study (again, conducted by MarketingSherpa in the same report cited earlier in this article). If you are categorized in any of the following industries, you may consider itemizing a social media budget for your 2010 initiatives moving forward, as well.
Overall, it looks like 2010 is going to be a good year for a great number of industries. We believe that many marketers believe it's time to invest and increase their marketing expenditures (not just in social media, but in other marketing services) to increase results. All indicators that we're reviewing here at NMG are showing that the companies that they work for are in agreement that it's time to put the bad economy behind us and move forward strong into 2010.
All the best to you/yours and enjoy your holiday season!
Happy hunting in 2010!
Sincerely,
The New Media Gateway Team