Social Media Jumps into Standardized Marketing Platforms

Now that we are at the close of 2009, there have been an abundance of articles and reports about 2010 marketing predictions with the biggest hopes for social media expansion and acceptance. Earlier this month, Forrester Research issued a report on interactive marketing predictions for 2010. The report indicated that business use of social networks will obtain budgets and power, social media metrics will align with real marketing metrics and Twitter will become more profitable (or get acquired).

Social media marketing and metrics is something all marketers have discussed since the dawn of MySpace and Friendster. However, measuring social media success and ROI has always been a struggle for many companies and social media marketers who want to justify their methods as well as the cost. Hence next year, the solution is for marketers to develop more efficient metrics and analytics for social media as well as standardizing listening platforms such as Nielson, Radion6, and BuzzMetrics.

Aside from metrics, social media marketers have other issues in convincing small- and medium-sized businesses of social media marketing’s power. In a survey done by Citibank, the majority of small-business owners and executives found social media veins to be ineffective as a method of expanding their businesses. One of the main reasons for this belief is a lack of education on the topic. Ad-ology posted a study indicating that nearly half of respondents wished they knew more about social media and that their chief obstacles were because of a lack of understanding.

Still, hope for social media being further incorporated in online marketing platforms as well as an increase in metrics and education about the channel is what we all want and expect out of 2010. Nevertheless, there is still much to learn from and expand on with this versatile and essential marketing channel.