From Facebook to Twitter, a full 90% of chief marketing officers now participate in an average of three or more social media activities, according to a new report from ratings and reviews provider
Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club.
In 2011, meanwhile, 93% of CMOs plan to use some form of user-generated content to inform product and service decisions. "There is a tremendous change occurring
in marketing today," said Erin Mulligan Nelson, CMO of Bazaarvoice. "CMOs have moved beyond fear and skepticism to embrace social media."
Optimistic about tracking ROI for social in 2010, 81% of
those CMOs who participated in an earlier survey said they planned to track social media to revenues in 2010. However, standard ROI metrics proved difficult to measure for many social efforts, as only
40% of CMOs surveyed in 2011 successfully tracked ROI on their social initiatives. As such, measurability is a top executive priority, with sales conversion and revenue attribution standing out as the
first and second growth opportunities in social measurement, according to Bazaarvoice.
Top forms of user-generated content used in 2010 included customer stories -- 59% -- product suggestions or
ideas -- 54% -- polling --49% -- and customer reviews -- 47%.
For their study, Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club surveyed 175 CMOs with U.S. and global marketing responsibility in October 2010.
Respondents included executives at business-to-consumer companies -- 39% -- business-to-business companies -- 47% -- and companies serving both consumers and businesses -- 14%. According to
Bazaarvoice, a wide range of industries was represented in the survey, including software/hardware -- 21.7% -- consumer goods -- 12.2% -- travel/ hospitality -- 6.9% -- media/publishing -- 7.4% --
retail -- 5.8% -- and manufacturing -- 5.3%.