Most Companies Have Social Media Strategies

Three-quarters of companies currently have a social media marketing strategy, according to a new study from King Fish Media, Hubspot and Junta 42.

Companies Have or Will Have Strategies
As mentioned above, about three-quarters (72%) of companies currently have a social media marketing strategy. Of the 27% without a social media marketing strategy (1% were undecided), 80% plan to have one within the next 12 months. Furthermore, only 11% of companies without a strategy definitely do not plan to implement one in the next 12 months, with 9% undecided.

Investments Will Grow
Another three-quarters of companies (75%) plan to increase their social media investment in the next 12 months. As with the previous question, a high percentage of respondents (13%) don’t know, with only 12% definitely not planning to increase social media investment.

One-third of Increases Tied to Specific Project
Of companies planning a social media spending increase, about one-third (35%) are tying it to a specific project or custom media program. Another third (33%) will make social media an incremental marketing budget increase.

One-fifth of respondents (21%) will fund social media spending increases from their moving budgets, while 11% don’t know how the increase will be allocated.

Marketers Take Part-time Social Media Responsibility
In a solid 70% majority of companies, social media is a marketing responsibility. Twenty-three percent place social media on the shoulders of management. The remaining 7% assign social media to sales, IT, or don’t know.

In 90% of companies, managing social media is a part-time job mixed in with other responsibilities.

Marketers Promote Whole Company to New and Existing Customers
Two-thirds of companies surveyed (67%) use social media to promote the company as a whole. Another 41% promote specific individuals (more than one response permitted), while 24% promote a specific brand.

In scope, most companies (70%) target social media campaigns to both new customer acquisition and customer retention. However, of companies that only target one of those groups, far more target new customers (23%) than existing (4%).

Social Media ROI Varies
Marketers use a wide array of metrics to measure return on investment (ROI) from social media campaigns, according to other survey results. Quantitatively, almost all (93%) measure the number of visitors/page views, while 85% measure the number of fans/followers generated. Another 79% measure the traffic generated to the corporate site from social media.

Qualitatively, 84% measure increased dialogues with prospects and customers, while 68% measure how much existing customer relationships were strengthened.