Social Media Advertising Growth -Study Report

Latest study reported by eMarketer and administered by media software company STRATA reports that 92% of marketers polled only spend up to 10% of their total advertising budget on paid social media:

The study also asked participants which social media networks they would most likely use to carry out their paid social media campaigns. Facebook was the clear winner, with over 90% responding that they would use the social network for a client’s paid social media movement. YouTube and Twitter were nearly tied at 55 and 53%, respectively, with LinkedIn (35%), Google+ and Pinterest (25%) rounding out the top six.

Social Media Advertising Growth

In addition, 25% of the respondents also reported that they consider paid social media offers a greater ROI than free social media efforts. This signifies a surge toward the belief that paid social can transport about more engagement, and thus, greater ROI.

Furthermore, other sources have stated that growth in paid social media spend has been forecasted for 2013 and beyond. An April 2013 post by Social Media Examiner states that 65% of those polled in another study reported that they were preparation on increasing their social ad spend for 2013. The post also stated that those polled planned on using paid social media in addition to  other online marketing efforts, like search engine PPC, video, and more:

66% of advertisers said they use paid social media joint with other online ads .Agencies showed a parallel pattern of usage.

These results coincide with the aforementioned eMarketer report, that paid social media only makes up to 10% of the total marketing budget for most organizations. While this piece all marketing ad spend doesn’t seem like a large amount, the gradual growth of ad spend on social networks like Facebook, YouTube, and others have shown that marketers  are looking toward making social media advertising more of an integral part of their budget.

Facebook Launches Verified Accounts for Brands, Businesses, Public Figures

Facebook is getting into the verification business, borrowing a feature that Twitter first introduced approximately four years ago.

Facebook’s verification badges for pages and profiles will also mimic Twitter by leaving much of the process unknown and internal.

It’s unclear why Facebook is making the move to confirm brands and well-known figures with large audiences on the site but it plans to start the proactive process over the coming days. The company will “automatically verify the largest pages on Facebook that are at the greatest risk of duplication,” said a Facebook spokeswoman.

“Verified pages fit in to a small group of prominent public figures (celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses) with large audiences,” the site notes in a blog post announcing the news.

“I think that it’s a concern for a lot of the luxury brands,” said Raina Penchansky, chief strategy officer for Digital Brand Architects. “Social and digital is a difficult space for luxury brands,” because luxury brands prefer to preserve an aura of exclusivity by limiting their exposure and access to larger untargeted audiences, she added.

While verified pages and profiles will add some semblance of authenticity, brands aren’t precisely begging for the feature or avoiding Facebook because they don’t have a small blue badge and check mark next to their names throughout the site.

"I've never seen any pushback from a product,” Penchansky said. “It doesn't feel like something that's been a huge barrier for entry for our brands."

Still, she said, some brands might be a little uneasy about the random verification process, particularly since Facebook hasn’t outlined the requirements for verification or the ability to request a profile or page be verified.

The blue check mark identifying verified pages and profiles will 98come out in timelines, stories, search results, news feed ads and while users hover over the name of a page elsewhere on the site. Brands that don’t automatically receive verification over the coming weeks are being referred to Facebook’s help center where common duplication issues can be resolved.

Only 37% of Marketers believe Their Facebook Advertising is successful [Study]

Social Media Examiner has released the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry statement. Of all the questions they posed to marketers this year, the thing that stands out the most is not how many businesses are using social media, but how many aren't actually tracking how effective their social media marketing actually is.

Of those who participated in the survey, 97 percent said they were using social media for their businesses and 86 percent considered it to be an significant part of their marketing efforts.

Moving onto Facebook specially, it isn't surprising that 92 percent were using Facebook as part of their social media efforts and that 49 percent considered Facebook to be their most essential social media platform.

But what is surprising is the actuality that only 37 percent of marketers think their Facebook advertising is successful. That is a pretty astonishing number. Is this a metric that shows Facebook marketing isn't efficient, or is it really to do with the fact marketers aren't properly tracking those Facebook efforts into ROI?

The report also reveals that larger businesses were much more likely to agree that Facebook was effective, but this might also be from a number of factors, such as higher brand awareness overall and targeted traffic from their company brand site to their Facebook page. For smaller businesses and lesser-known brands, Facebook marketing might definitely seem to have a lesser impact without a well-known and familiar brand behind it.

Another interesting factor is the relationship among the amount of experience using social media and the amount of time spent marketers spend on their social media efforts. Fifty percent of those with less than 12 months experience with social media are spending 5 or fewer hours on social media, while for those who have been doing social media for at least two years, 70 percent of those are spending 6 or more hours on their social media efforts each week.