(Article) How long does it take to truly benefit from Social Media Marketing ?

[Harold Mansfield]

Read this today from E-Marketer Daily and thought it was both interesting and relevant to a lot of the discussions that we have and around here on Social Networking

The June 2010 survey found that, while a few companies at each stage of experience with social media marketing did have a fully integrated strategy, it wasn’t until companies had been working in social media for at least two years that even a quarter of respondents had fully integrated their programs into their business model. And integration was more common than more basic coordination only among companies that had used social media for at least three years.

Source: Is Social Media Marketing Integration Years Away? - eMarketer

[greenoak]

interesting...
but isnt it kind of hard to judge where you arein total integration? and who would have 3 yrs on social media? i have about that long on my blog...but facebook far exceeds the blogs reach in just a few months..
.this sounds kind of odd to me.like pure theory ... ..like saying it takes 3 to 5 yrs to make business in a store....you hear that all the time, like its a given fact... ...but the reality is most stores dont make it at all .... i mean if you do social media badly for 3 yrs you probably wont have the results on the graph....
....all i know is today about 40 facebook users went from my fb page to my blog...today i linked my blog to my facebook post..and it was a pretty good , about them , post..... and a lot of strangers call me by name in the shop....but how would i rate that on the graph?

[Harold Mansfield]

I don't think it's saying how long it will take, just how long it takes for the businesses surveyed. Not all businesses dive right in, they just put their toes in the water. And not all businesses really investigate how or what to do or come up with any plan that is effective.

There is obviously both sides of the coin. some businesses will embrace it right away and immediately put time and money into an effective campaign and others will meander along until they come up with a plan or finally get around to it.

[greenoak]

right......my little point was that some always work really hard and not on the right stuff.......and take a poll like that as encouragement that time will solve things..like the stores thinking things will work out in year 5.........i see that over and over in retail...success usually isnt about time, imho....
social media is so new....how do you judge if youve integrated it well? what are the benchmarks? its just guesswork right now for me....
i like my blog a lot but if i was just looking at it with reason i would probably have to dump it....only form 20 to 40 viewers a day usually.... maybe a hundred a few days this week tho!!!! because of a fun facebook connection...
magpie cottage

[Harold Mansfield]

Ann, you have obviously embraced it and come up with a formula that works. When people are coming in because they saw you on Facebook, then you are obviously going in the right direction, that's what all businesses want out of it.

Most of my clients want Facebook integration but they don't really have a plan to engage anyone other than posting their blog posts to the wall. They will probably be the percentage that are slow to come up with any real marketing plan to fully integrate it, mainly because they don't know what to do with it, or won't put in the time to cultivate it right away.

[greenoak]

i think 3 things are working well for us ...things that i cant take credit for...... 1, demographics,our fANS are mostly women who like our store in real life are already heavy into facebook.im trying to join them as much as they are joining me...... 2, being local, which means im working with mostly people connected with me in some way already...3.and i have the kind of thing they are already happily buying..
also they like style and seeing pictures....and im about the nice side of life....not hard stuff like work or the dentist....
.. facebook is probably a real natural for our store...i wouldnt think it would work that well for every business.... especially one with mainly men...or online marketers....they would be in a lot bigger group than me... there must be hundreds of online marketers out there....
im just facinated by it right now....its a big thing here ...

[vangogh]

Interesting article. I think it's pretty accurate too. From what I've seen most business jump into social media without really having any overall strategy, especially with how it ties back into their site and business. Many dive in get some results and don't move on from there. Some that play in the social sphere for awhile do start to realize the importance of integrating various social channels and more importantly have social fully integrated with their business model. None of the article is really surprising, but it's interesting to see the data to corroborate nonetheless.