Brands favouring traditional digital channels over social media
Research finds marketers are rejecting tools such as Facebook and Twitter. 
Marketers are failing to embrace social media, with only three per cent looking into channels such as blogging and microblogging via tools like Twitter.
This is according to research from email marketing company Emailvision, which surveyed 150 companies at the recent Online Marketing Show in the UK.
With Facebook set to catch up with Google in terms of unique user figures and Twitter expected to attract its 25 millionth user by year-end, Emailvision claims that marketers are missing a trick by ignoring social media.
The company gives three main pieces of advice for integrating social media tactics into marketing campaigns:
1. Cross-channel consistency – getting the basics right and ensuring you have consistent messages across multiple channels is key to controlling the identity of your brand. Linking email content to social media updates will drive interest in both channels.
2. Encourage engagement – offering prospects a discount or incentive for following your brand will encourage extra buzz in the social media sphere. As Dell recently proved by making $1 million advertising special offers on Twitter, it might just increase revenues too.
3. Test those Tweets – measurement is vital for the success of any marketing campaign. Monitoring click-throughs from social media sites and reviewing the online chatter surrounding your brand, will help you to develop and improve its multi-channel approach.
Additional survey findings reveal that businesses favour traditional marketing channels. Almost half of respondents cited SEO and email as being among their leading tools. Yet in spite of the high level of companies employing these channels, the lack of uptake of newer social media tools indicates that many organisations are failing to use this method to supplement their more traditional approach.
“It’s understandable that many brands are wary about investing limited resources in new and emerging marketing channels,” said Nick Gold, UK managing director at Emailvision. “Getting the basics right with existing channels can free up time and money, offering a solution to these brands,” he added. “This time and money can be used to integrate social media into established approaches; allowing businesses to develop new strategies, while refreshing existing techniques at the same time.”