Social media marketing 'engages with customer on one-on-one basis'

12:30 22nd January 2010

Social media is set to become a major player in the digital marketing industry after two-thirds of marketing professionals said they intended to invest in social media marketing in 2010, a report found.

The annual Alterian survey polled more than 1,000 marketing professionals from around the world and found the majority thought social media marketing was a worthwhile strategy.

Alterian chief executive David Eldridge said the digital decade would begin by social media marketing coming to the forefront.

He said: "Untargeted and irrelevant marketing techniques are now redundant and the results of this survey show many in the industry recognise this. The one thing to remember, however, is that investment in social media marketing is futile without adequate measurement."

Social media marketing helps businesses to engage with their customers on a one-on-one basis, he concluded.

More than half of respondents indicated they would be moving towards engaging with consumers across multiple platforms rather than concentrating solely on campaigns.

The survey also found more than a third of the digital marketing professionals would be investing in tools that could analyse the success of their social media marketing.

Social media is also becoming an important tool for journalists, a survey by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University's Masters Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations found.

According to the research, 65 per cent of journalists used social media websites such as LinkedIn and Facebook to research stories.