• by Scott Eagle , August 31, 2010

According to a study presented at a Pivot Conference (in partnership with Extra Mile Research) entitled "Marketers' Current and Future Use of Social Media," 63% of marketers are already investing in social media marketing, and of the 37% that are not currently investing in social media marketing, 62% are planning to invest, including 46% who plan to do so within one year.

Other key findings include:

• 57% welcome social media users involvement and participation with their brands
•  Of those already investing in social media marketing, 87% plan to increase their expenditures in the next 12 months, including 56% who plan significant increases in spending.
• Only 30% of marketers who conduct social media marketing have measurement and analysis strategy fully implemented.
• 43% of marketers who conduct social media marketing have not begun implementing any measurement or analysis programs
• Of those who have measurement and analysis programs in place, 62% are only "somewhat satisfied" with their programs
•  Despite all of the focus and investment in social media marketing, only 30% consider their social media marketing efforts "very successful." 59% rate their efforts as "somewhat successful."
• 75% of marketers consider the "always-on" 18-34 year old consumers as a primary or secondary target.
• Marketers feel that the "always-on" 18-34 year old consumers have unique characteristics:
• 70% of marketers consider them to have a shorter attention span
• 67% consider them to have different motivations than previous generations
• 59% consider them to be less accepting and more questioning of marketing messages in general

The scale of social media, and the involvement of its users, make social media a compelling platform for marketers, concludes the study, with hundreds of millions of users creating profiles and engaging in online dialogues. The study was designed to explore marketers use of social media, motivation for usage, and plans for future use as well as marketers measurement and analysis of social media programs.

The primary motivation for using social media as a marketing vehicle, says the report, is to follow customers and prospects to the sites where they are active, generating a growing understanding of the unique two-way nature of this marketing environment. Motivations to begin social media marketing  include:

• 70% say that social media marketing is a powerful tool for brands or products
• 62% feel that their prospective audience is on social media sites
• 47% note that social media users/always-on consumers gather information differently
•  40% plan to use social media as part of customer support and relationship management

To what degree are marketers embracing the "user involvement and participation" culture of social media? The study indicates user involvement with marketing campaigns and brands is welcomed by most marketers. 57% welcome user involvement enthusiastically, while another 13% seek customer involvement, but are cautious about the process and outcomes.

Although this study and the sampling techniques focused primarily on marketers, respondents indicated that a number of departments within their company have become involved in social media marketing and customer engagement.

Departments Involved in social media marketing

• Marketing... 92%
• Public relations... 57%
• Customer service... 36%
• Other... 15%
• Investor relations... 4%

Of those corporate (non-agency) respondents already involved in social media marketing, 47% manage the process in-house. 21% use full-service ad agencies to conduct their social media marketing, 9% use agencies that specialize in social media marketing, and 18% use a combination of full-service and specialized agencies to conduct the campaigns.

The study results indicate that social media marketing investments remain a modest portion of most companies' online budget. 74% are currently spending 20% or less on social media marketing.

Investments in social media marketing need to be viewed within the context of marketers testing and adopting new platforms. While current usage may be low for platforms like mobile applications and location-based sites, high percentages of marketers are planning to use these platforms.

Of the marketers that have already begun investing in social media marketing, only 30% report having their social media measurement strategy fully implemented. 42% percent have not yet implemented any strategy to measure and analyze their programs. This level of measurement contrasts significantly to other online advertising efforts, which are known to be consistently measured by marketers:

• 17% not yet planning a measurement and analysis strategy
• 25% in the planning stage for measurement and analysis strategy
• 28% in the process of implementing measurement and analysis strategy
• 30% say measurement and analysis strategy fully implemented  

Finally, among those marketers measuring the success of their social media marketing, 89% are satisfied, though the largest segment are only somewhat satisfied with their programs.

To review the complete report, with charts and graphs, please visit here.