NEWS13 May 2009

Marketers still ‘lack social media knowledge’

McCann Erickson UK kicks off regular study of social media as a marketing tool

UK— Two-thirds of marketers questioned in a survey said they do not have adequate knowledge about how to use social media correctly in marketing.

The results come from McCann Erickson UK’s first social media survey. The agency hopes to conduct similar studies every six months, tracking trends as they develop.

Eighty-six per cent of those questioned acknowledged that social media is here to stay, and 76% said it has a place in business and marketing activity, but nearly half said that their companies blocked access to popular social networking sites, preventing them from monitoring what is being said about their brands.

Joanna Randall, head of PR at McCann Erickson Bristol, said: “There is a real thirst for information and knowledge on the subject of social media which is constantly evolving – making it hard to keep up with the latest trends. We have established this report as part of an ongoing study into usage and attitude, run through our specialist social media unit. As marketing professionals we should be considering how best to harness the power of social media.”

Author: Robert Bain

@RESEARCH LIVE

1 Comment

Manuel Mattern

16 years ago

I have to underline the essence of this studies. We're web2.0 developers from germany and we're young. but I have to admit that marketers are not the only once who have absolutly no idea about marketing in networks and the tecniques of web2.0 itself, also so the politicians who are screaming for web2.0 during the election in germany have absolutly no clue about this topic. they just want to have something, and then it has to go the obama way, ignoring all the basics and rules of neuro-marketing and web2.0 beyond their appearance in www. But their consultants are mostly marketers who have no idea and especially phantasy how to use the new tools. I can say that, because we've been to several communication conferences, the last was the 7th international conference for political communication 3 weeks ago in berlin. the best auditions were from michael mosynski (campaign strategy for labuor party) and Jim Margolis (election strategy for barack obama). They presented good tecniques and strategies to reach people, by focussing the user or the elector...but all members of govnerment did not achieve this big point...never leaving their own perspective...maybe they're to old to understand the unwriten rules of era of information, having learned all the theories of cold war and protection in their academic developement. But these people are steering the world we live in, so I think we're not getting the max. benefit out of our world, only by the way the using their poltical power and horizon and just the infrastructure and administrative base they have in their govnerments. politics have to reach the tecniqual level of the present. because democrazy is a developement, taking place 2800 years. I hope my english was understandable otherwise I have to say sorry. manuel mattern , cologne

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