Recession? Not for Social Media Marketing!
The latest report from FORRESTER (Q4, 2008 SOCIAL MEDIA ONLINE SURVEY) outlines a very clear trend:
53% of the marketers are determined to increase their social media budget during the recession. Further 42% said that they will keep their spend intact and not reduce it.
Very clearly 95% of the marketers are positively inclined towards investing in Social Media, even during recession.
Though the survey also brings out the fact that 75% of the marketers have allocated USD100,000 or less for social media marketing!
This implies that social media marketing spends are small but definitely growing.
If you dig deeper into the reasons for the above, it’s evident that as a new medium, Social Media is bound to have a small start, and it will be in the best interest of marketers to remain invested in Social Media for a long term.
Recession is the best time to keep in touch with your customer, to maintain the quality of your product and to keep the customer engaged for feedback and in new product development. Because when you come out of recession-your customers will remain bonded with you, which acts as an entry barrier for competition in good times, post recession.
All the above benefits can be achieved by leveraging Social Media Marketing. Hence the marketers just need to stay invested here for long term.
Another important aspect of the small start stems from my belief that Social Media Marketing starts with ‘listening’ to your target audience and ‘tracking’ your brand perception. Both these activities do not entail huge investments- but do entail meticulous planning and long term strategy to be able to graduate from listening to engagement and then to conversion.
Hence in these fledgling times for Social Media Marketing, small but definite growth is extremely encouraging!
· The sample size is 145 interactive managers, nearly 75% of which worked at companies with 1000 employees or more. The survey was conducted between November 2008 and February 2009.
· Data Source: Forrester
References: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3ie2b23ab2b6e7cd345fdea0cfaaef529e
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/03/16/report-social-media-marketing-up-during-recession/
Mar 17th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
In India, Most marketers will probably start keeping aside a social media budget. That would be a big first step
Nice blog Saurabh
Mar 18th, 2009 at 1:51 am
[...] my blog out of the stone ages. 2009-03-17 19:37:47 · Reply · View mediamasters: http://atomthought.com/?p=208 Recession? Not for social media marketing! 2009-03-17 19:34:40 · Reply · View [...]
Mar 18th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
When you are in India working for Indian company then how does it help you write about the global trends which seldom gets replicated in India… Forget Social Media - how many clients are there on internet first and second which are the ones going on social media…
Mar 18th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Dear Abhlilash
The answer is in your question itself. The very fact that this market is small, requires one to educate and create a buzz. One can either get frustrated about the number of clients and their spends or do something about it.
I believe that AtomThought can bring a renewed focus and a thought-change in this industry by constantly presenting relevant best practices and trends from across the world!
Mar 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Hi Saurabh, was wondering if you are aware of the Delhi NCR IndiBlogger Meet 2009 scheduled for the 4th of April. Would be great if you can make it and blog about the event too.
Please send in your ideas for the agenda in the comments section.
RSVP - http://www.indiblogger.in/bloggermeet.php?id=33
Cheers,
Anwin
IndiBlogger.in
Apr 24th, 2009 at 4:37 am
I found your blog on Google. I’ve bookmarked it and will watch out for your next blog post.
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:37 pm
i have tried social media marketing for getting our new products to be known on the market. it seems to work well specially if the audience is targeted ~