Many companies are moving their marketing budgets away from direct marketing and into social media. A survey by Brand Republic of over 1000 marketers around the world found that 66% of respondents were to invest in social media and 40% said that the funding would come by cutting the direct marketing budget.
Another important area of investment is likely to be in measuring the return on investment of social media. An area that has not been as important for many of the early social media innovators, it's now essential to be able to measure ROI. As early adopters and established practitioners and influencers in this sector, Reach Further have been aware of this from the start which is why we have developed a model for social media strategy in which ROI informs every step. Canny companies are not prepared to make investments without a clear procedure to monitor and evaluate the success of their social media activities.
As David Eldrige is quoted as saying in the report:“The rise in the number of marketers turning to social media monitoring tools is reflective of a maturing of the market and a growing understanding of the role social networking can plan in marketing campaigns.”
