Survey Shows Marketing is Free-Lance Friendly

Awareness Inc. announced the results of their State of Social Media Marketing Survey.  The results hint at opportunity for novices and dabblers.

The results of the State of Social Media Marketing Survey were released today, revealing the top areas of social media marketing investment and the biggest social media marketing trends for 2012.  The survey was conducted by Awareness, Inc., a provider of on demand social media marketing management software.

According to The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch, Awareness Inc. CEO Brian Zanghi stated, “Our State of Social Media Marketing report reveals clear social marketing maturity patterns…Companies experienced in social marketing are moving beyond growing social presence and reach. They are shifting to active social media management for increased lead generation and sales. We expect less-experienced marketers to follow their visionary peers, adopting established practices as they move along the maturity continuum.”

Professional marketers claim that increased web presence across a range of social media platforms is still the top priority in 2012.  Increased frequency of content and publishing takes a close second. In both cases, Internet marketing and improved, targeted web advertising will undoubtedly play a critical role in advertising campaigns for most companies.

As the WSJ Market Watch report continued, “Experienced social marketers also plan continued investments in social reach but at a lower rate: 64% reported that they plan to increase investment in this area in 2012, mostly represented by expansion into new platforms such as blogs, YouTube, Forums, foursquare, Flickr, SlideShare and Tumblr…”

Despite modest budgets, the survey indicates marketers will rely heavily on social technology to achieve goals. “Marketers reported that they plan to monitor for brand mentions at least a few times per week (78%) and to monitor industry conversations (62%). Also, more marketers (25%) plan to use social media management platforms in 2012 than in 2011 (19%).”

Digital Marketing, like digital anything, is quickly replacing traditional forms of advertising.  The internet has caused a paradigm shift in the ways that companies conduct businesses, and professional marketing firms are now in competition with novice, self-employed, free-lance marketers.

Professional firms are not alarmed by the increasing presence of free-lancers because they tend to operate differently.  The survey predicts that “social reach will be led in 2012 by self-reported social marketing novices and dabblers,” whereas professional marketers intend to focus on active social media management.
Maybe those professional firms should pay a little closer attention to those “novices and dabblers.” After all, they’re probably the ones who understand the trends—and how to effectively market within those trends—best of all.