Like anything else that’s new, social media marketing is taking awhile to catch on and gain the trust of some of the professionals in the industry. A new report is saying that while social marketing is on the rise, traditional techniques still have a strong foothold in the marketplace on the Internet. In fact the social media firm Constant Contact reports nearly 2/3 of businesses that reported for the survey stated they are using social marketing on Twitter and Facebook but not turning their backs on more traditional values.The survey reports 73% of those polled say they are currently using social media marketing but also supplementing it with e-mail marketing as well as a website and more traditional print and other techniques. Experts are saying either social media marketing has not gained complete trust with marketing professionals as yet or it isn’t the be-all to end-all but rather just an enhancement to help other techniques along.
Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact says social media marketing will take off once the professionals in the industry have a better idea of how to use it more adequately and there are the proper metrics in place to gauge its effectiveness. Even though much is being made about this technique in recent months and even over the last several years, the survey found e-mail marketing is still the prevalent way most businesses get the message out about the goods and services they have to sell. Eighty-three percent of the respondents to the survey said they check their e-mail well before they go to any social media marketing site like Facebook or Twitter and a full 73% say they check their e-mail at least six times a day.
Although it is possible to have e-mail accounts set up to forward any messages from some of the social media platforms, the results confirm only 13% of those surveyed stated they go to places like Facebook or Twitter to first check on any prospects for business. Experts are noticing a trend whereby social media marketing enhances e-mail marketing and most of these people including Goodman say social media works together with e-mail marketing rather than replace it.
Although social media puts the message out to a wider audience, is still e-mail that most people look toward to get their first dose of any kind of message on any given day. It’s interesting to note as well that with be rise of social media marketing there has been no decline in the use of other online marketing tools including websites as a foundation for any messages on the goods and services people want to sell.
