Meltwater Buzz : How Effective do Businesses find Social Media Strategies?

Niklas de Besche, Meltwater Buzz

The Future of Content Survey: How Effective do Businesses find Social Media Strategies? Social Media Today

We all know social media can do great things for a business. A well developed social media strategy can play a big part in a business’s ability to be successful.

However, according to the recently released Future of Content survey, developed by Loudhouse with Meltwater Group, 48 percent of organizations do not consider social media an integral aspect of their marketing effort. It is easy to assume that the reason behind such a decision lies with budgetary constrictions but surprisingly only 18 percent cite this as a barrier. Given the strong potential of social media, what therefore could be fuelling organizations’ hesitancy toward embracing this practice?

Only 37 percent of US companies surveyed consider social media as the most effective marketing method of consumer engagement. Companies are still reverting back to the tried and tested methods of in-person events (61 percent) and print magazines (56 percent) to encourage interaction with their customers. Given that social media is a relatively new practice many organizations have difficulty in creating meaningful or interesting content (23 percent) that emotionally engages their audience. This suggests an overall lack of understanding of the social media landscape.