Commentary

Truing Up Social

It's always interesting to figure out where we really are with allocation of the marketing and media mix -- relative to our enthusiasm about all the emerging platforms and vehicles.

 

One of my favorite eMarketer charts every year, one we frequently reference at Laredo Group sessions, shows what planners "plan" to allocate and deploy that year - the relative expected placement of email, paid search, social, display and numerous other media types. 

One of the things we have continued to note over recent years, even amid the industry happy-dance over the ever-more-diverse mix available, has been the continued prevalence of email. Yes, it's true. Email -- and for that matter, paid search -- has remained high on the totem pole, largely we assume for its trusty performance on direct response and ROI.  

At the same time, these platforms have also been favored by small businesses. We must assume it is because email and paid search make it easy enough to hire vendors or individuals to assist, and are operated with fairly user-friendly, increasingly slick tools sets that have evolved to service their use. Gone are the days of the small-business executive in his pajamas manually manipulating Google bids at 2 a.m. (well, for the most part). The point remains that the most popular methods are ones we've made it fairly easy and cost-effective to use and measure.  

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So, when just this morning eMarketer released some April 2011 data from Pitney Bowes confirming my theory, I had to smile. The chart cited here examines several media types for attributes of desirability. User comfort and knowledge; a desire to compete with ones peers; proven effectiveness; all were quantified within the poll. But the leading attributes of what boosted a media method to the top were ease of use and cost-effectiveness.  

Social media fared nearly as high as email on these two attributes -- and higher than it ever has before. Additional data showed social as the lead "new marketing tactic" used by small businesses. This implies new levels of confidence and favor, at a glance. 

While I am certainly not a fan girl for one media type over another, it's been hard to be a fair proponent of robust media mix, when some of what we have available has remained hard, awkward or mysterious to use. So I always love when the tools set and measurability start to catch up.

In the case of social, such progress finally gets us beyond the "we need a Facebook page" imperative. The trend reported here rings true, as we survey the landscape and see a suite of social buying utilities; buzz-monitoring tools (both subscriber and free options); and an open source environment that is making it increasingly easy for marketers and small businesses to get what they need to do social media integration. It's good to see the numbers catching up to our collective enthusiasm.

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