This week at B2B Marketing we’ve gone crazy about social media – launching our lively ‘State of B2B social media 2013’ infographic taken from our The Social Media Benchmarking Report and releasing ‘Is social working?’ analysis online.
Undoubtedly, social has become indispensable marketing tool, but not one without its downfalls. Sometimes we’re guilty of getting lost in the social media ‘hype machine’. Remember: It is vital you are not blinded by the glaring lights, and instead recognise the negative features of social networking.
Tweeting, liking, mentioning and pinning have become second nature to the internet generation, and marketers even more so. However, in social, unlike other forms of marketing, time investment outstrips cash investment…
Consequently, creating and managing a social media profile for an organisation requires significant time investment. Maintaining even a small network can occupy an overwhelming part of your day – not to mention allowing marketers to be on call 24 hours. What’s more, if you’re trying to do this across multiple social channels, for numerous personas, you can very easily become a slave to social. As a result, a key challenge is to know when to stop.
B2B marketers must ensure social media does not take over a campaign and obscure other activities; rather it must have a solid place in the overall objective and strategy. Social should complement a campaign, rather than drown it. If additional resources are required, outsourcing is the best option. Plus justifying it may provide new focus on the importance of the activity.
Follow B2B Marketing’s Social Media Benchmarking Report’s top tips to ensure you don’t become a slave to social:
• Develop clear time planning, management tools and frameworks to ensure relevant amounts of time are allocated to social media.
• Ring-fence other key activities to ensure they are always completed regardless of social activity.
• Regularly review the amount of time allocated to social media, and appraise against results achieved through it.
• Build business cases to outsource additional work where necessary.
For an overview of the full report download the B2B Marketing Social Media Benchmarking Report 2013 key findings document.
Download an infographic providing further detail on the report.
