Social media was not the primary topic of the article. The title was SMBs Still Favor Face-to-Face Marketing Tactics; it focused on how small and mid-sized businesses are reaching out to their target markets and what has proven successful for them.

An interesting graphic included in the analysis dealt with social media. The usual suspects were included in the breakdown: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Videos and Blogging, along with less obvious ones such as Discussion Forums, Q & A sites and Pinterest. A survey was done of over 200 firms, asking how effective each of these media were, and what their organization’s plans were for engaging in that platform for the future. Here’s how they broke it down:

1. Not using, not planning to start
2. Not using, but planning to start in the next 12 months
3. Not working, will be decreasing
4. Using, but don’t know if it’s working
5. Working, will keep at present levels
6. Working, will increase usage in next 12 months

When reviewing such data, our tendency is to look at the individual elements (Facebook versus Twitter, for example) rather than how organizations perceive their analysis of social media as a whole. What is telling is item number three: “what activities businesses will stop doing” is the smallest percentage for all categories.

This indicates that to a large degree, organizations do not really know what is not working, and so they will continue to plow ahead, using the same tactics, hoping or different results. Social media can be difficult to measure; however, there are different means to find out what is effective. What businesses may want to consider is what type of metrics and measurements are being used and how they influence their decision making…

 

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