Social media leadership means creating DEMAND not preference. CEO’s should be pressing marketers to put sales and leads before tweets and friends… period. It’s a marketer’s job to create measurable demand not memorable ads… nor preference. It’s time to lead.
So far, social media is today’s version of mass media branding. It’s a ghost that somehow generates sales and leads – reliably so. Need proof? Just correlate the rise in whatever to your investment in Twitter, Facebook – whatever.
What’s it cost? Nothing really. That’s what marketers told Econsultancy in a recent survey. 32% of marketers who responded to the survey said they spend 0% of their budget on social media. And 36% said they spend less than $5,000 annually on it. Get this… nearly ALL of them use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. So apparently employee TIME doesn’t figure in to cost? Is this marketing leadership?
And what are marketers’ biggest wins for 2009? According to a recent eROI study: increased clicks to their sites and brand awareness. Call me crazy but these ALL seem like problems that can be solved by CHANGING the way marketers operate. And the best way to start is by uprooting an old, outdated belief system. By changing the core values behind marketing leadership.
Don’t let them skate CEOs – or they’ll just continue to make irresponsible calculations about how social media marketing is free. Action item: Demand marketers embrace the SCIENCE of direct response… and put traditional ARTISTIC advertising in the back seat. That’s the problem I see and what you can do to improve your business. What do you think?
