‘Social marketing budgets’ on the up but blogger relations not a quick hit

Jan 2, 2010 by Dirk Singer

There would be something seriously wrong if this chart from Marketing Sherpa showed something different, but it confirms that so-called social marketing budgets are set to rise across just about every industry sector.

Retail is the most active area with 79% of marketers saying they intended to up spending, while only 1% said they’d cut it.

And how is this money going to be spent?   60% will be on the “human factor” – salaries (finally, more brands set to bring in dedicated social media staffers?), monitoring and so on.    Meanwhile 20% will go to outside agencies and other suppliers.

However also worth noting is the chart below from Marketing Sherpa’s Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.  It assesses the effectiveness of various activities versus the time and effort it takes.    Blogger relations is seen to have the biggest impact, but just like with offline media relations it’s not an easy hit.

According to Marketing Sherpa:

“The most effective tactic shown in the chart above – blogger relations – is used by far fewer organizations than less effective tactics primarily because of the effort required.  This focus on “fast and easy” versus effectiveness is a problem that is far more prevalent with organizations in the trial phase of social marketing maturity than with more advanced social marketers working from a strategic social marketing plan.”

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