Marketing Pilgrim

Social media is on the front of every marketer’s mind (or at least it seems that way) but it still gets the treatment normally reserved for those who don’t quite fit in. In other words, while there is tremendous value in social media it is still a tough road to travel to get social efforts integrated with traditional marketing campaigns. The techniques voted “Most Likely to be Siloed” include third party social networking site, blogs and microblogs. While all the talk centers on these areas there is still considerable concern about how well they play with other elements of marketing campaigns and just how to best help them fit in.

eMarketer tells of a report done by Unica which is a marketing management firm. Here are the numbers from this particular study.

So what’s the hold up? Why is it that many of the most active, important and vastly utilized social media activities are still considered persona non grata when looking at the overall effect of marketing efforts?

My theory is that it I just a matter of TMI. When anyone has too much of anything it becomes difficult to manage. When it comes to data social media activities like Twitter, Facebook and blogs generate so much information that it can bury even the most seasoned marketer.

When asked how all of this data impacts other marketing efforts it becomes extremely difficult to isolate the true cause and effect relationships that C-level marketers want to see. Of course, the general lack of knowledge of these marketing vehicles the further you go up the marketing food chain creates an even greater issue.

In your experience are you seeing the same kind of difficulty in truly integrating your core social media efforts with the rest of your marketing campaigns? What ways have you found to bridge this gap to help social media get out of the silo and in with the rest of the marketing efforts?

Share your experience with us openly. You won’t be giving away any secrets. Besides, it’s Friday and most people will forget what they read by Monday anyway.

On that note, have a great weekend!