The World of Social Media Marketing

Let’s start with the statistics to set the stage.


65% - Marketers who have been using Social Media for 1 month or less
14% - Businesses who outsource any part of their Social Media Marketing
9% - Marketers that are saying they are planning to decrease the use of MySpace
6 Hours – Average number of hours per week the majority of marketers are suing Social Media
85% - Marketers who say exposure is the best benefit of Social Media


Ok we have set the stage with our props.


The pros will tell you it is hard to get a firm number on their ROI with social media efforts that is why they don’t know what to do with it. So they turn to things like Alterian, Bazaarvoice, Radian6 among others to tell them what is happening. While these tools are helpful you can also be paying upwards of $600 a month. If that is what you need to know what is happening in your Social Media network and your Social Media Marketing I don’t think you are very social.


Yet if you need numbers to show the “Shirts” I guess you need to do it. You can measure how online reviews affect you, how influential your blog is. This lets them target their overall message in their marketing which can produce higher sales. It can difference the kinds of hits and sales coming for different sources such as a blog, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. In Constant Contact (I am told) there is a “Social Media Stats” program that was stated last September to all users to track where emails are being posted in the social media world. Alterian even offers a service that will tag and sort “relevant” social media information.


The old days (1 year ago) the idea was just getting people to collect information that was coming back at them, now? Now we seem to be demanding mountains of data so we can make sound decisions. We need information to make a decision. Is this the next evolution in Social Media Marketing? Do we need to do a business analyst to tell us “This is what we should do.”?


I live and die by gut instinct. If you’re not quick on your feet you will get passed. Sometimes it has worked out, other times, not. But I know quickly if I have made a good choice or not.


Larson Notes & Satire: If you are Daddy Warbucks, and have deep pockets I guess you can do all this statically programming stuff. Uncle Howie’s pockets are not that deep and I am not in that club. The fact I’m Norwegian can make a penny cry has nothing to do with it.

I have 2 reports on what kind of marketing efforts companies are planning on using and where the money is going to be going this year sitting in my stack of stuff.  Some I agree with, some I don’t. I guess I should put them out in a blog for you. Ya think?

If you have been reading or watching me you know I operate Marketing with a “Seat Of My Pants” philosophy and use information requests, proposals and sales as my ROI criteria and count.


I know how many hits, both unique and multi, my web site got yesterday or a month ago. I can also tell you, once I peak in my files how many proposals I did last week or a year ago and how many sales that translated into.


When I saw that the “Big Dogs” are spending all of 6 hours in and on their Social Media Market and world I clapped my hands and clicked my heals! Talk about getting lost in the shuffle. I started leaving MySpace over a year ago in favor of Facebook. Keep running boys! And as for exposure being the best use of Social Media Marketing, forget it, exposure is nice but I want to sell something.


Bye bye boys. . . This is my pond and the water I’m swimming is (still) just fine.


If you need to go on and spend that money on those fancy programs. Get all your stactical analysis done. For me, I got myself and my staff racking over the Social Media world keeping the world safe for us here in the Land Of Larson.


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
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