Social media ‘teams’ needed to cut business confusion- IAB

The survey was conducted amongst 80 senior level marketers from some big international brands. It reveals that 88% of UK brands rate social media as important to their business. While this boost of credibility among business users cements social media’s role within the corporate environment, additional figures confirm that there is still a level of uncertainty surrounding its ‘natural habitat’, and how advertisers should make best use of the discipline. 

Although a range of skillsets are identified as necessary to successful social media implementation, the results show that there are conflicting views over which department should be responsible. Nearly three quarters (73%) of respondents stated that social media belonged within the marketing department, but others think it should be the responsibility of PR (33%), research (12%) customer services (16%) and IT teams (7%). 

Simon Rutherford was until recently Head of Digital at Toyota. He is now in the process of establishing a social media agency and understands the challenges many businesses face.

“Social media has the potential to confuse organisations, because it requires a mix of skills which have traditionally been exclusively contained within departments,” he said.  “For example, whilst a marketing department might manage research, and the development of content, PR might understand how to handle misinformation about their company and products.
“Is the answer to reskill, but stay within departments, or to form a new dedicated team? To some extent the answer will differ from organisation to organisation. The first step is to clarify the strengths of each department, and map those against the skills required to succeed in social media.”

Other challenges facing social media were highlighted by the research. These include proving ROI, measuring social media, and how best to use it. This suggests more education and new quantifiable models are needed to gauge its influence. In addition, it seems that there are still some areas of social media that marketers are not yet familiar with. Over a quarter (27%) of respondents did not know what crowdsourcing was, for example.

Despite these obstacles, Guy Phillipson, the IAB’s CEO, envisages that social media will play a more holistic role in the modern corporate environment.

“If leveraged correctly, social media has the potential to sit at the very heart of an organisation,” he explained. “Business leaders need to consider its role across an organisation’s entire operation and consider its strategic value to communications, promotion, insights and customer care.”

In terms of specific platforms, the research shows that Twitter and social media monitoring are the most important, with half (51%) of brands actively using them. Facebook pages are deemed second-most influential (47%), branded communities third (39%), and blogger outreach, UGC, video distribution, reactive customer service and display advertising within social networks on an equally influential footing. 

Source: www.IABuk.net

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