Business Learning Center

At Blue Fountain Media, social media marketing is a major part of our business. On a daily basis, the marketing team works with clients on their blogs, their use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, FourSquare and numerous other social media platforms.

Because social media marketing is a relatively new field and because most of our clients were in business long before the advent of social media marketing, many clients and potential clients are skeptical about the benefits of social media marketing.

Because we can show potential clients the success we’ve had with our current clients, they generally come on board.

As a business, Blue Fountain Media actively engages in social media. We employ multiple platforms (including the Business Learning Center) to raise awareness about Blue Fountain Media and provide useful information to our clients and the business world at large.

A recent study confirms what we’ve known all along. Even a relatively small investment in social media marketing can have major payoffs for businesses of all sizes.

Michael Stelzner, Executive Editor of Social Media Examiner, produced the white paper: 2010 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INDUSTRY RE PORT.

For the report,  Stelzner canvassed nearly 1900 marketing specialists and asked them dozens of questions about their use of social media marketing. He found that even with as little as a four hour per week investment in social media marketing, companies reaped significant benefits on a variety of fronts.

Not only is social media marketing on the rise, but that the marketing efforts are paying off, in a big way. In fact, 91% of all marketers are using at least one social media marketing platform, with the majority using multiple platforms.

Here are just a few of the findings:

Time Investment

• 76% of marketers spend at least 4 hours a week on social media marketing
• 56% of marketers spend more than 6 hours a week on social media marketing
• 12.5% spend more than 20 hours a week on social media marketing

Social Media Marketing Platforms Used by the Marketers

• 88% Twitter
• 87% Facebook
• 78% LinkedIn
• 70% Blogs
• 46% YouTube or other video

Other social media platforms utilized included Digg, Ning, Forums, social bookmarking sites and MySpace.

Payoff

• 85% said the social media marketing campaigns increased exposure for their businesses
• 63% reported an increase in traffic/subscribers/opt-ins
• 56% said the efforts resulted in new business partnerships
• 54% reported an improvement in search rankings
• 52% said it generated qualified leads
• 48% said it helped in sales of products/service
• 48% reported that it actually reduced marketing costs

While the payoff (above) may seem significant, it is really just the tip of the iceberg. The majority of the marketers participating in the survey (65%) said that they were just starting with social media marketing or had been using it for just a few months.

Because these campaigns tend to deliver an excellent ROI, the longer the marketers had been using social media marketing, the more hours per week they invest in social media marketing.

Conclusion

If your business isn’t already employing the tools of social media marketing, it should begin to immediately. Like any marketing campaign, it should be approached and executed in a professional manner:

• Strategize: Which platforms would best reach my business’s target audience?
• Budget: What percentage of my overall marketing and advertising budget am I willing to invest in social media marketing?
• Execute: Who will be responsible for crafting and delivering my message through social media marketing?
• Monitor: How will I quantify the success or failure of my social media marketing campaign?

The key to a successful social media marketing campaign is that the people responsible for the campaign should have the knowledge and experience to handle all of the above responsibilities.

The Blue Fountain Media social media marketing team has vast experience in this area and has delivered successful campaigns to clients in myriad industries. If you are thinking about starting a social media marketing campaign or want to expand your current efforts, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 212.260.1978.