The Biggest Obstacles to Social Media Marketing

Posted August 1st, 2008 by Brian Cavoli

Two recent studies highlight why companies are struggling with social media marketing.
We used to point to the fear of giving up control a lack of support from senior management as the primary reason for the slow adoption of social media, but recent studies from Jupiter Research and the Society of New Communication Research (SNCR) show that its not stubborn management anymore… its about strategy and management.

In Jupiter’s “Social Marketing Scorecard” report, they find that advertisers don’t have clear goals when approaching social media sites. In fact, 47% of large advertisers in their study said that figuring out which tactics suit campaign goals was their biggest challenge.

The Society of New Communications Research was part of another recent study that found that the greatest obstacle to making an only community work is not related to technology or funding. It’s about implementation and management.

In their “2008 Tribalization of Business” report, SNCR found that 51% of marketers believe their biggest obstacle was simply getting people involved in the community, and 45% said it is finding enough time to manage the community. In this study, only 9% indicated a lack of management support was a major obstacle.

Here’s a quote from one of the study partners, Lois Kelly of Beeline Labs, in MarketingVox:

“At conferences around the world we’ve heard marketers say that their biggest challenge is executives’ resistance because they fear losing control, but this research indicates that this may not be as big of an issue as marketers think. Clearly the bigger challenge is focusing the community around a purpose that people want to contribute to and be involved with - and devoting the right resources to promote and support the community.”

We’ve heard it a thousand times, social media is a new approach to marketing and not just a new channel to push messages at an audience…these studies give us more proof that this is true.

Entry Filed under: Social Media Marketing