3 Shock­ers From Michael Stelzner’s ‘2012 So­cial Me­dia Mar­ket­ing In­dus­try Report’

I’ve just fin­ished read­ing the “2012 So­cial Me­dia Mar­ket­ing In­dus­try Re­port” and for me 3 facts re­ally stand out on the sur­pris­ing side.

In case you never heard of it: The “So­cial Me­dia Mar­ket­ing In­dus­try Re­port” is an an­nual re­port from SocialMediaExaminer.com on “How Mar­keters Are Us­ing So­cial Me­dia to Grow Their Businesses.”

The “So­cial Me­dia Mar­ket­ing In­dus­try Re­port” an­swers ques­tions like:

  • What are the top 10 so­cial me­dia ques­tions mar­keters want answered?
  • How many hours per week do busi­nesses in­vest in so­cial me­dia marketing?
  • What are the 9 most im­por­tant re­sults mar­keters are achiev­ing with their so­cial me­dia efforts?
  • Which so­cial me­dia plat­forms busi­nesses are us­ing, and how is their us­age chang­ing this year?
  • Which is the num­ber 1 so­cial me­dia site peo­ple want to learn more about?

And many more…

If you haven’t seen the re­port yet, go and down­load. It’s free un­til April 19.

Down­load Page: 2012 So­cial Me­dia Mar­ket­ing In­dus­try Report

Shocker #1 – Only 40% say they’re get­ting sales through so­cial media

On a list of 9 ben­e­fits of so­cial me­dia mar­ket­ing, ‘im­proved sales’ ranks last. (see page 9)

At the same time, 59% say they’re get­ting leads from so­cial media.

What’s wrong with that picture?

  • If 19% of busi­nesses are get­ting leads but no cus­tomers, they need to se­ri­ously look at their mar­ket­ing fun­nel. (59% get­ting leads, 40% get­ting customers)
  • If 85% of busi­nesses are aim­ing at in­creased ex­po­sure, but only 40% get cus­tomers, they need to ask them­selves: What are we get­ting from in­creased exposure?

I be­lieve the cul­prit here is a lack of goals and strat­egy, es­pe­cially with smaller businesses.

They got the idea they need to be on so­cial sites. They opened an ac­count. They started posting.

And from there, things just hap­pen co­in­ci­den­tally. You spend some time daily to visit the sites, post stuff, and in­ter­act. You post an oc­ca­sional pro­mo­tional link every now and then.

Mh, so who am I to cast the blame? 

Look at my pro­files, and you’ll find ran­dom, non-strate­gic so­cial post­ing is just what I do.

But I find it costs more time than it’s adding in value to my business.

That’s why I have signed up for Mari Smith’s ‘So­cial Mi­das Course.’

If you feel you’re putting more work in than you get out (in leads and sales), sign up for Mari’s course, and build  a stream­lined, suc­cess­ful so­cial me­dia strat­egy this month:

https://ibmm.com/mari

Side­note: Strangely, Mari’s course doesn’t seem to have a so­cial or com­mu­nity com­po­nent. I’d be happy to have a pri­vate dis­cus­sion, or even a small mas­ter­mind group, with any­one who joins the pro­gram. Mes­sage me through my con­tact form or through google plus if you’re par­tic­i­pat­ing at So­cial Midas.

Shocker #2 - Most busi­nesses leave ma­jor mar­ket­ing chan­nels untapped

How will busi­nesses change their so­cial me­dia mar­ket­ing and non-so­­cial mar­ket­ing in the future?

The big pic­ture is easy, use of mar­ket­ing chan­nels falls into 2 groups:

1. Plan­ning to in­crease use above, or near, 60% 

  • Youtube, Face­book, Twit­ter, Blogs, Google plus, LinkedIn
  • SEO, Email mar­ket­ing, Event marketing

2. Plan­ning to in­crease use be­low, or near, 40% - all of these are also be­low, or near, 50% of cur­rent use. (see page 34 for cur­rent use)

These meth­ods are ig­nored by half or more of all businesses:

  • Photo shar­ing sites, Fo­rums (big mis­take!), So­cial book­mark­ing, Geo-lo­­ca­­tion, Daily Deals
  • On­line ad­ver­tis­ing (shocker!), Press re­leases, We­bi­nars (hey, they sell your prod­ucts like hot­cakes!), Sponsorships
  • And way down: Di­rect mail, Print ads, Ra­dio ads, Tele­vi­sion ads. I agree with that!

(see pages 24-30, and 35-39 for planned increase)

Let me be brief on this one: I know each mar­ket­ing chan­nel costs time and money – but more chan­nels means more customers.

Re-eval­u­ate for your busi­ness at least these 3 channels:

  • Fo­rums in your niche are pre-build com­mu­ni­ties that de­liver you po­ten­tial cus­tomers on a sil­ver platter.
  • On­line ad­ver­tis­ing is the eas­i­est form of mar­ket­ing where you can mea­sure money spent and money earned. Cut the losers, con­tinue the winners.
  • We­bi­nars build bet­ter re­la­tion­ships than ANY other form of mar­ket­ing, ex­cept live events.

Shocker #3 - Most busi­nesses get their pri­or­i­ties wrong.

Here are the plat­forms busi­nesses are us­ing for so­cial mar­ket­ing, in or­der of importance:

  • Face­book 92%
  • Twit­ter 82%
  • LinkedIn 73%
  • Blogs 61%

(see page 21)

Busi­nesses pri­or­i­tize Face­book, Twit­ter, and LinkedIn higher than their own Blog?

Michael Stelzner’s ‘2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report’

That’s com­pletely up­side down.

  • Al­ways re­mem­ber: Any third party web site can change their rules any­time. (Think Squidoo)
  • Al­ways re­mem­ber: Any third party site can sus­pend your ac­count any­time. (Think Google)
  • Al­ways re­mem­ber: Any third party site can turn loser any­time. (Think MySpace)

You don’t know what hap­pens with other people’s sites in the up­com­ing years, but you al­ways have full con­trol of your own web site or blog.

Be­sides, you don’t want to sup­port their busi­ness, you want to sup­port yours. And the best way to sup­port yours is to sup­port your own site and blog.

True: short term, get­ting en­gage­ment on Face­book and Twit­ter is MUCH eas­ier than get­ting en­gage­ment on your own blog.

Also true: long term, you’ll profit more when us­ing so­cial sites to sup­port your own blog, not the other way round.

Us­ing so­cial me­dia to sup­port your blog will put a solid foun­da­tion un­der your own site. It will help with pop­u­lar­ity, sus­tain­able Google rank­ings, and keep your con­tent alive.

In in­ter­net mar­ket­ing, your own web site is the cen­ter of the universe!

My take­aways from Michael Stelzner’s ‘2012 So­cial Me­dia Mar­ket­ing In­dus­try Report’

These are not rec­om­men­da­tions taken from the re­port, but my own thoughts about where busi­nesses can im­prove, based on the re­port’s statistics.

1. Re­fine your so­cial me­dia mar­ket­ing goals and strat­egy. Putting cus­tomer ac­qui­si­tion on top of the list might be a good idea. Ex­po­sure in it­self is use­less. Con­sider Mari Smith’s So­cial Midas.

2. Eval­u­ate un­used mar­ket­ing chan­nels. So­cial me­dia mar­ket­ing is trendy, but there are lots of other prof­itable chan­nels. Are you miss­ing out on other trends and easy ac­cess to cus­tomers in your niche?

3. Make your own site more im­por­tant than any other. Pri­or­i­tize your own site for con­tent, use so­cial me­dia to sup­port your site.

Do you agree with my ideas? Why is so­cial mar­ket­ing go­ing wrong for so many busi­nesses? Let me know in your comments.