Last year saw a maturing of the social media marketing space, with the arrival of new players, more advertising options and advances in metrics.
While the full impact of Google+, introduced in June, has yet to be determined, it's fair to assume the power of the search giant will make it a significant player. The new social site already has more than 50 million users, and it's being leveraged by the world's top two search engines (Google and You-Tube), plus Google's paid search and mail dominance, Maps, image organizer Picasa, Android mobile OS, Chrome browser and leading analytics solution.
G+ is much more than a copycat, according to social media and content strategist Jay Baer. Marketers will continue to use the big three social sites of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, Baer said on his Convince & Convert blog, but, “if Plus gets any sort of real momentum among end-users—and I firmly believe it will—Google's unique ability to finally tie search and social together in one package will force the hand of business, making Google+ the place to be for interaction between companies and their customers.”
The power of social media was never demonstrated more powerfully than in its ability last year to mobilize groups toward a common cause. In the purely social sphere, Facebook in particular was given credit for helping organize real revolution in the Middle East.
The flash mob phenomenon, first cited in 2003, not only helped spur social change this year but was also used for business purposes. Video marketing company Pixability Inc. organized a social marketing flash mob as part of the weeklong FutureM marketing conference in Boston in September.
To help promote its annual conference in October, the Direct Marketing Association staged flash mob-like events on the streets of New York in the form of free outdoor marketing seminars. The seminars, featuring “celebrity CMOs,” were announced on the day they took place, and the resulting videos had a significant impact on event registration, according to the DMA.
Last year saw both CRM and marketing automation companies rush to add social media analytics to their packages. In November, Salesforce.com debuted its Social Marketing Cloud, an integration of social analytics and nurturing with its CRM products. The suite offers social monitoring through Radian6, which Salesforce acquired last spring, as well as social analytics to determine sentiment and influence.
On the marketing automation front, companies adding social media monitoring and metrics capabilities to their suites included Aprimo Inc., Eloqua Corp., IBM Coremetrics, Marketo Inc., Neolane Inc., Pardot and Silverpop Systems.
“There's no question social media can be a powerful tool for establishing community and generating leads,” said Adam Blitzer, co-founder and COO of Pardot. But Blitzer cautioned that best practices in this area are still emerging.
“To optimize its value, social media efforts should be monitored carefully and integrated into broader content and lead-nurturing programs,” he said.
Last year was also marked by a maturing of advertising on social sites: Facebook overtook Yahoo in display ad revenue on the strength of its Sponsored Stories and other ad units; Twitter expanded its Promoted Tweets advertising program to show ads from companies that are not being followed by users; and LinkedIn pay-per-click ads debuted.
According to a study by local market research and consulting company Borrell Associates, social ad spending among all companies in the U.S. will rise from $8.0 billion last year to $9.7 billion this year, $13.1 billion in 2013 and $24.4 billion by 2016.
Borrell Associates sees social advertising embraced in particular by small, local companies, two-thirds of which advertise on social sites.
“All advertisers want is results,” said Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, whose study was based on an online survey that ran from January through August and attracted 4,271 respondents. “They want people in the door, whatever it takes to make it happen. Small businesses in particular are deeply trained to expect results.”
