With the rise of social media, the importance of knowing your audience has taken center stage. When you listen to your audience, your one-on-one engagement on social sites becomes effortless and ultimately you are able to deliver exactly what they want, when they want it.  The real-time element of social media makes this possible.  With simple online surveys you can take your social media program to an entirely new level.

The Benefits of Knowing

When was the last time you actually asked your fans and followers what they really wanted? When it comes to social media marketing, this important aspect, surveying your audience, is often overlooked when creating a social media strategy.

Unfortunately, when you don’t spend the necessary time and energy learning about your audience, you are in danger of completely missing the mark when it comes to engaging with your audience, building real relationships and adding value. These days, with all the chatter online, not knowing your audience can make or break your business and your brand.

First, let’s take a look at the 5 benefits of knowing your audience.

#1—Focus: Knowing your audience allows you to stop spending time on things that don’t interest them, and focus more of your energies on creating content you know will instantly resonate. Content created with your audience in mind will drive more traffic to your blog and increase activity on your social sites.

#2—Break the Barrier: Your ideal audience likely has similar uncertainties, challenges and fears.  When you understand their fears, you can break down their barriers by confronting their concerns head-on with solid solutions to support their needs.  You can move past their uncertainties if you know what they are.

#3—Language: When you learn more about your audience, you will learn the trigger words, phrases and questions to use to increase your overall engagement with your customers and prospects.  When you learn your audience’s communication style, you become someone they can relate to.

#4—Empathy: If you take the time to listen to your audience, you will start to understand what makes them tick.  The more you empathize with your audience, the more you can respond to their needs.

#5—Positioning: When you take the time to understand your audience, you can become the “go-to source” by delivering the content they’ve asked for.  Your knowledge and delivery of the content positions you as the expert.

Sample Questions to Ask Your Audience

When creating your online survey, the most important element is the questions themselves. Before you craft your questions, decide on the overall goal for your survey.  What information do you need to know in order to build stronger relationships and support your customers at a higher level?

To get your creative juices flowing, here’s a list of potential questions for your survey. These questions can be geared specifically to your niche and will help you delve deeper into the needs and wants of your audience as they relate to how you communicate with them and how you create your products and services to fit their needs.

Remember this:  The shorter your survey, the more responses you’ll get. Try to keep your survey short, while still achieving your desired outcome.

1. What type of business are you in?  Are you in business for yourself or do you work for a company?
2. How do you spend your time online?
3. What blogs do you read most often?
4. How much time do you spend on email per day?
5. What frustrates you the most about [insert your niche here]?
6. What are your main goals for [insert your niche here]?
7. What type of training would support you in [insert your niche here]?
8. What strategies have you already tried in this area?
9. What have you tried so far that hasn’t worked for you?
10. What other training or coaching programs have you tried so far in [niche]?
11. What’s your biggest fear or concern when it comes to [insert a challenge here related to your niche]?
12. What would you be willing to do to solve your challenge or reach the outcome you want?
13. If you could have one question answered about [insert a challenge here related to your niche], what would it be?
14. When shopping for [insert product or service], where do you tend to look first? (Here you could give a drop-down menu with options to choose from.)
15. What do you consider the top three websites in [insert your niche here]. (This question will help identify your competitors.)
16. How often do you currently use [list tools or resources related to your niche]?

Using Social Media to Promote Your Survey

Once you’ve crafted the questions, you can create the actual survey.  There are different survey software tools you can explore to deliver your survey.  Two of the most popular are Survey Monkey and Poll Daddy.  I would suggest using an online option such as these for your survey because they both deliver easy, real-time access to analytical data from your survey results.

Once you’ve created your survey and loaded it into a software tool, you have many options to get your survey out to as many people as possible. Before you start sending out your survey, first decide if you want to gather a large number of responses or if you want to narrow your reach to a specific group of people.

The more responses the better; however, if people outside of your ideal audience are taking your survey, you might not get the information you’re after.  So be clear on your ideal respondents and be strategic in going after them.

Ideas to Promote Your Survey

Facebook:  Post a message on your profile and your page.  Create a strong headline that will attract the attention of your ideal audience.  Make sure to click the “Like” button after you post because this will allow it to go viral faster.

Notice how there is a call to action in this post to get your audience to click on the link.

LinkedIn: There are two great places to post your survey on LinkedIn.  The first is the “Network Activity” box on the main page of your LinkedIn profile.

The "Network Activity" box on LinkedIn

The second place to post your survey link is the “Answers” section. (You can find the “Answers” section in the “More” drop-down menu on the top of your LinkedIn profile page.)  In order to reach a large audience, I suggest you use both areas to post your survey.

Make sure to take advantages of both spots to post your survey on LinkedIn. The audience on this social site is likely to get involved and take your survey, so don’t miss out on this great social real estate!

Twitter: Twitter is a fantastic way to create buzz for your survey.  To get even more traction, you can ask others to retweet your survey link.  Here are two example tweets for a survey:

You can test out a few different survey tweets if you run your survey for a few days.  I suggest you experiment with headlines by tracking the clicks via your shortened survey links. Keep testing new headlines until you find one that elicits a lot of click activity.

YouTube: Make a short video explaining why you created the survey and encouraging your audience to take a few minutes to complete it.  Give your viewers the URL and also post a link under your video on YouTube.

Your Blog/Website: When people visit your blog, you can create a pop-up to invite visitors to take your survey or you can create a static box that includes a link to your survey.  Make sure to place the box above the fold and in a highly visible spot so viewers can easily find it.

List: Email the survey link to your entire list. Send out an email blast and encourage your current list to participate.

Key Influencers: If you have access to key influencers in your niche, ask them to spread the word about your survey.  Create tweets and Facebook posts for the influencers to make it as easy as possible for them to help you create buzz for your survey.

Reach out to your groups: If you belong to any online groups, forums or masterminds, send out a link to your survey and ask your group members to spread the word too.  The goal is to get your survey to go viral as fast as possible!

Offer a gift in exchange: If appropriate to your outcomes, offer a gift for completing your survey.  You could hold a contest for a free gadget or perhaps a free 30-minute consultation with each completion (depending on the size of your reach).  Think of something your audience would find valuable and build a giveaway strategy around that.

Why This Supercharges Your Social Media Presence

Once you’ve taken the time to ask your audience what they really need and want, you now have a huge advantage over your competitors.  When it comes to social media, there are key areas where deeper knowledge of your customers and prospects will be extremely useful.

Engagement:

There is always a lot of talk about the importance of engagement on social sites, especially on Facebook pages.  Imagine if you knew firsthand the topics your audience liked to talk about the most?  What if you knew the blog sites where they get most of their information?  You could use this insight to craft posts that will grab the attention of your followers and start conversations.  When you talk about the topics they’re most interested in, you can’t lose.

Your Opt-In Strategy:

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Social media sites have made it easier to ask prospects for their contact information in exchange for a free gift.  An opt-in strategy is an extremely powerful tool when used correctly.  These days, you can take advantage of opt-in boxes on your blog site, website, individual landing pages and on your Facebook page and profile.  The traffic landing on your sites consists of hot leads and you want to create a compelling reason for these people to give you their name and email.

Use the information you collect from your survey to create a “can’t resist” opt-in strategy.  What did you learn from your audience?  What do they want to learn more about?  What training or tools do they find most valuable?  What topic interests them the most?  Use this info to create a giveaway that they can’t pass up.

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The great news is that there are multiple ways you can deliver content via an opt-in.  You can create a free report, an eBook, a video training series, a coupon, a free consultation, a newsletter, an assessment, a “top tips” list on your niche—the opportunities are endless!  The key here is to take what you learned and give your audience something they’re sure to find irresistible.

These two opt-in options deliver content to target a specific audience’s needs. Take a look to get some ideas for opt-in strategies that might work best for your niche.

Become the “Go-To Source”:

Now that you know what your audience wants most, give it to them!  Create questions based on their feedback and then create blog posts or short videos to answer those questions.  You will instantly become an expert because you have the answers they’re seeking.  This strategy also builds trust and affinity because you are adding value and insight.

If you take the time to ask your clients what they really want, you will be able to catapult your social media presence by communicating and delivering value at a higher level than most others in your niche. There is much you can do with this valuable information, so I encourage you to take the time and create a survey for your own business.  You will likely be pleasantly surprised at what you find out.

Now it’s your turn! Have you used online surveys to find out more about your audience?  If so, what are some of the ways you’ve used the feedback to benefit your marketing and social media efforts?  If you haven’t done so yet, in the future do you think you’ll test out online surveys in your marketing efforts?

And if you work for a business or own one, it’s likely that social media marketing is on your radar.  More and more marketing dollars are beginning to shift toward social media marketing and this trend only continues to climb.

Here are 5 studies that show how Facebook is undoubtedly a leading online social contender and a key tool that is continually changing the landscape of online engagement and fan loyalty.

#1: Average American Spent 7 hours on Facebook in January

According to recent findings by Nielson Company, Facebook has officially become a favorite pastime for many (but we’ve known that for a while now!).  However, the findings are pretty astounding when you really break it down:

The average time users spend on Facebook is 7 hours per month (a 10% increase).  To put that into perspective, Yahoo! is in second place, but with only 2 hours 28 minutes per month. The fact that people are spending more than 4 hours extra on Facebook compared to leading sites like Yahoo! and Google is information marketers should note when creating their social media campaigns.

This chart shows the breakdown of user time spent on the major sites:

#2: 44% of Social Sharing on the Web Is Driven by Facebook

With the surge of social networking over the past year, we have seen social traffic begin to rival search traffic—and the major players, including Google, are paying close attention to this trend.

TechCrunch recently looked into the services on the web that drive the most sharing and reached out to Gigya for some stats.   What’s Gigya?  Gigya is a company that powers sharing widgets on more than 5,000 content sites, including major players like ABC.com and Reuters. As TechCrunch explains, “Consumers can click a share button on these sites and send an article link, photo, or video via a menu of different services including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and AOL. Over the past 30 days, people have shared almost a million items over the Gigya network.”

Based on Gigya’s data, here’s the distribution of shared items on the web:

• Facebook: 44%
• Twitter: 29%
• Yahoo: 18%
• MySpace: 9%

This pie chart, courtesy of TechCrunch, shows the breakdown of social sharing on 4 major sites:

In addition, some other interesting stats from Gigya include:

For share of authentication via news sites, Facebook took 31% while Google was close behind with 30% and Yahoo at 25%.

With entertainment sites, Facebook was the major leader with 52% (Google was second with 17%, Yahoo with 15% and Twitter at 11%).

As we have seen with the popularity of social sites, people like to share links with multiple people at one time, versus just one-on-one via email. Because real results are strongly tied to the amount of online traffic you’re able to generate, it’s important to break down the sources of this traffic when considering where to spend your time and marketing dollars.  These stats shed light on where the action is really happening.

#3: Facebook Yanks Number 2 Spot From Yahoo

According to a Compete.com report, there has been a changing of the guard in the online world. Facebook has surpassed Yahoo, now taking its place as the number-two most popular site in the U.S.  Facebook drew nearly 134 million unique visitors in January 2010. According to the site, “It’s been two full years since we’ve seen a shakeup at the top—In February 2008, Google overtook Yahoo as number one and never looked back. Is Facebook’s next conquest the Google traffic throne?”

Here’s a great chart that shows Facebook’s climb to the coveted #2 spot:

But as we all know, the real dollars are in the engagement—and Compete.com says it best: “Facebook is second to none.” In January, 11.6% of all time spent online was spent on Facebook (compared to 4.25% for Yahoo and 4.1% for Google).  Facebook is in it to win, to say the least!

#4: “Faking It” on Facebook Is Rarer Than Previously Imagined

The findings from a recent research study conducted by the journal Psychological Science, show that instead of “faking it” online, people are much more likely to reveal their true selves online and not the idealized image of who they want to be.

A largely held assumption (supported by analysis) suggests online profiles are less than truthful when looking at true personalities of the users, and the researchers in this study set out to test that hypothesis. “There has been no research on the most fundamental question about OSN (online social networking sites) profiles,” notes the report. “Do they convey accurate impressions of profile owners?”

The conclusion of the report was very surprising to most. The report states, “These results suggest that people are not using their OSN profiles to promote an idealized virtual identity. Instead, OSNs might be an efficient medium for expressing and communicating real personality, which may help explain their popularity.”

The study focused on both MySpace and Facebook; however, the popular site Read Write Web stated that the “real personality” results were more likely to been seen on Facebook than other social sites. They pointed out that because it only allows the use of your legal name and due to its long-standing privacy controls, Facebook “provided its users with a sense of safety, security and comfort—they could be themselves—their real selves, flaws and all, without the world watching.”

#5: Facebook Boosts Sales and Customer Loyalty

The Harvard Business Review recently featured a new study from Utpal Dholakia and Emily Durham of Rice University.  For their study, they asked the question, “How much do businesses really influence consumers when they launch pages on the site to attract ‘fans’ and pepper them with messages and offers?”

To gauge the effectiveness of Facebook fan pages, the study used one company’s page to measure the effect on customer behavior. For the experiment, the researchers partnered with Dessert Gallery (DG), a popular Houston-based bakery and café chain. They first emailed over 13,000 customers from their mailing list to gather store evaluations and information on shopping behavior. Then they launched the fan page and invited the mailing list to the page.  Over the course of three months, the company “updated its page several times a week with pictures of goodies, news about contests and promotions, links to favorable reviews, and introductions to DG employees.”

Three months after that, they resurveyed the fans and here’s the overall result: Facebook changed customer behavior for the better.

Those who had replied to both surveys and had become fans stood out as their best customers. Here’s the breakdown of the findings of their new fans:

• Store visits per month increased after people became fans.
• The new fans generated more positive word of mouth than nonfans.
• They went to DG 20% more often than nonfans.
• Fans gave the store the highest share of their overall dining-out dollars.
• They were the most likely to recommend DG to friends and had the highest average Net Promoter Score—75, compared with 53 for Facebook users who were not fans and 66 for customers not on Facebook.
• DG fans also reported significantly greater emotional attachment to DG—3.4 on a 4-point scale, compared with 3.0 for other customers.
• Fans were the most likely to say they chose DG over other establishments whenever possible.

“We must be cautious in interpreting the study’s results,” Dholakia said. “The fact that only about 5% of the firm’s 13,000 customers became Facebook fans within three months indicates that Facebook fan pages may work best as niche marketing programs targeted to customers who regularly use Facebook. Social media marketing must be employed judiciously with other types of marketing programs.”

But overall, Dholakia stated that the results indicate that Facebook fan pages offer an effective and low-cost way of social media marketing.

Your insight and opinion matter!  What is your opinion of the “power of Facebook”? Do you agree or are you not seeing the same success rates as these studies suggest?  Do you favor another social media tool over Facebook?  I want to hear your insight, so be sure to share here!

Relationship building via social media marketing is not a one-size-fits all endeavor. Moms, teens and Baby Boomers are three big social media subgroups groups that are unique.

Just like with traditional marketing, the more you know your audience, the more successful you will be at grabbing their attention and keeping it.

In terms of marketing opportunities, recent online buzz shows teens, Boomers and moms as three of the most desirable social networking groups.  They are active on these sites and their behaviors have been studied closely.

Each group is unique, and the secret to success is understanding where they are spending their time and how they are using the social sites to engage and connect.

According to The Nielsen Company, global consumers spent more than 5.5 hours on social networking sites in December 2009.  In December 2008, users were only spending about 3 hours on the same sites.  That’s an increase of 82% in just one year.

Along with the data on overall social media usage, current studies have come out that focus on three major demographics.  Here’s insight into the social media usage of teens, Boomers and moms.

Teens Blog Less, but Use Social Media More (Pew Research Center)

Recent surveys from Pew provide insight on social media usage among teens and young adults.  The 37-page report highlights the attitudes and behaviors of people 18 to 29 years old (Millennial generation).

Here’s a snapshot of some of the key findings:

Social Networking: As can be expected, online social activity is highest for teens and young adults. The data shows that nearly 72% of young adults and teens use social networking sites, compared to 40% of adults 30 and older. This is expected as younger people tend to be digitally savvy and socially connected online.

Social Sites: The sites teens and young adults are spending time on differ from those of adults. The younger audiences are much more inclined to use MySpace (66% of young profile owners have an account, compared to 36% of adults).  The same younger group is much less likely to have a LinkedIn profile, with only 7% participating in this career-oriented site, compared to 19% of adults. Most interesting are the similarities in Facebook activity among the groups. 71% of the younger generation actively maintain a Facebook profile and 75% of the older generation maintain one as well. Once again, Facebook always seems to come out above the rest in terms of social media adoption and engagement.

Blogging: 14% of teens say they blog, compared to 28% in 2006. Fifty-two percent of teen social network users report commenting on friends’ blogs, down from the 76% who did in 2006. Pew offers one explanation, “As the tools and technology embedded in social networking sites change and use of the sites continue to grow, youth may be exchanging macro-blogging for microblogging.”

Twitter: Twitter is a unique exception to most of the other data on teens and adults. The data points out that teens have not been drawn to Twitter as they have to Facebook and MySpace.  This is the one area that teens do not dominate usage over adults. Ten percent of online teens ages 14-17 and only 5% of those ages 12-13 use the tool.  Here’s another interesting stat: 13% of high school girls and only 7% of boys the same age use Twitter.

This report is extensive and offers insight into many more areas of online activity.  It’s definitely worth the read.

Baby Boomers Take on Social Networking (eMarketer)

A recent report by eMarketer looked at the social network usage of multiple generations.  They broke up the generations as follows: Millennials (14-26), Generation X (27-43), Boomers (44-62), and Matures (63-75).

Some of the most interesting data focused on Baby Boomers and their major jump in social media activity from just 2008 to 2009.

Forty-six percent of Boomer respondents said they maintained a social network profile (compared to 30% in 2007, according to a recent Deloitte study).

Here’s the breakdown on 3 popular social sites:

Facebook:

• Baby Boomers using Facebook increased 107% from 2008 to 2009
• 73% of Boomers maintain a Facebook profile
• 90% of Matures maintain a Facebook profile  (That number comes as a surprise considering it was the highest of all generations.)

Twitter:

• Twitter usage jumped 714% from 2008 to 2009
• 13% of Boomers maintain a Twitter account
• 17% of Matures maintain a Twitter account (again, higher than the Boomers!)

LinkedIn:

• 13% of Boomers
• 4% of Matures

“Boomers expect that technology will help them live longer and better lives and keep them connected to family, friends, co-workers and, eventually, healthcare providers,” said Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst. “To fulfill these expectations, Boomers are turning to social media, where they keep up their offline social connections and make new ones. Online marketing messages that help them build on their connections—and foster other online relationships—will get their interest.”

Tech-Savvy Moms Increase Social Media Use by 462% and Favor Facebook Most

According to a study by BabyCenter, LLC, the number of moms who use social media regularly has jumped 462% since 2006.  In addition, 44% use social media for word-of-mouth recommendations on brands and products and 73% feel they find trustworthy information about products and services through niche online communities (parenting, groceries, family, etc.).

In addition, data from lucid marketing and Lisa Finn found a whopping 96.3% of the moms surveyed said they used Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family while only 10.4% said they focused on checking out companies or products while on social networking sites. The good news was that moms were more receptive to marketing in general, a big plus for companies marketing in this space.

Here are some facts to keep in mind when marketing to moms on Facebook:

• 75% are Facebook fans of at least one company or brand
• 16% of mom Facebook users followed more than 10 companies’ fan pages
• 59.9% of moms feel neutral about Facebook ads, while 36% actively dislike them
• Their favorite pages focus on parenting info, and pages focused on coupons, restaurants, groceries and entertainment (kid-oriented entertainment being the most popular).

“Facebook is fertile ground for marketers to engage mothers and drive sales, but it needs to be done on their terms,” said Kevin Burke, president of lucid marketing, in a statement. “They have no time for brands that don’t ‘get it,’ but they do embrace brands that play by their rules.”

Now it’s your turn!

Do you market specifically to any of these three groups online?  If so, does the data support your experiences or is it missing something? What other groups do you think marketers should start paying more attention to in the near future?  I’d like to hear from you.  Please comment below.

By the way, MarketingProfs used a three-tiered approach to craft this study, including consulting with a panel of social media experts, surveying more than 5,000 MarketingProfs readers and asking comScore to mine its panel data.  This approach adds greater integrity and scope to the overall results.

#1: What’s “Normal” in Social Media Usage?

How often are marketers posting on some of the most popular social sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn?  Here’s a snapshot of the frequency of posts:

• Twitter: Half of the marketers surveyed reported updating at least once per day. Of those, 20.6% actually update several times per day.
• Facebook:  The largest group (33.4%) of marketers are updating “weekly.” However, nearly 30% are updating at least once per day.
• LinkedIn: Only 11.5% update daily with the overall consensus being weekly updates at 25.4%.

What’s hype and what’s fact?

Many of the findings in this report touched on some of the frequent hype-versus-fact dialogue taking place in the social media arena. “Is Twitter more popular than Facebook?” “Do companies with no money use ‘earned’ media the most?” and “Do a lot of followers mean social media success?” are some of the questions addressed in the results.

Who has higher usage stats, Facebook or Twitter?

If you look at the overall number of users, both corporate and consumer (with the exception of certain industries), Facebook comes out ahead of Twitter.

Here are some facts:

The average minutes per visitor on Facebook in 2009 was 182.8 versus only 25.6 on Twitter. According to MarketingProfs, “Part of why time spent on Twitter is so much less than time spent on Facebook has much to do with the design of these sites. Facebook encourages users to aggregate external content on Facebook to be viewed within the network, while Twitter encourages users to link externally, viewing content outside of the network.”

Also, about half of all marketers report that their employers or clients actively maintain a corporate Facebook account, while 42.8% reported their employers or clients maintain a Twitter site.

Who’s using “free” media? Based on the results of the study, “free” media, also known as “earned” media, is not just for small businesses with no money to spend. The data shows that “it takes money to build and staff earned media marketing materials. The word ‘free’ belongs in quotations for a reason,” says MarketingProfs.

This compares “earned media” usage against annual corporate revenue. Surprisingly it shows a steady usage amount across many of the “earned media” tactics, showing that annual corporate revenues are not necessarily a driving factor for “earned media” usage.

“Comparing earned media use against annual corporate revenue, we find a remarkably steady usage amount across many of these tactics. Private communities, share tools, SEO and email have nearly identical amounts of usage across all these levels of annual revenue. Those taking in less than $10 million do tend to rely more heavily on public online communities and blogs, while companies with lots of cash are more likely to invest in PR and viral videos. However, it is surprising how consistent usage is across all these categories.”

Do follower counts really matter?

According to the stats, there are three types of Twitter users, the two primary types being “those that value massive follower counts and those that want a very specific set of people to follow them.” And MarketingProfs points out that a third type of Twitter users might be those that want a lot of followers but have no clue how to get them.

This shows how the number of followers reported by corporate Twitter users is distributed. The steep curves shows that some users care about the quantity of followers while others care more about the quality of followers.

Although the report did not touch on the number of fans on corporate Facebook fan pages, it did report on corporate Facebook accounts and the number of friends associated with them.  Based on the results, only 6% of Facebook fan pages had 2,000 friends or more.

This shows the number of Facebook friends reported by corporate users. Similar to the Twitter graph above, there is a steep curve. This curve shows that very few marketers (only 6%) have been able to reach the 2,000 friend mark, meaning most marketers fall well below this mark.

#2:  Social Media Strategies: The Good, Bad & Ugly

On Twitter, the two tactics tried the most were 1) driving sales by linking to promotional web pages (72.1% tried it) and 2) driving traffic by linking to marketing web pages (54.2% tried it).

On Facebook, the two tactics tried the most were 1) driving traffic to corporate materials with status updates (55.3%) and 2) “friending” recent customers with corporate Facebook profiles (39.2%).

Here’s what you really need to know from the report:  The least-tried tactics often seem to work the best (something to consider next time you plan a social media campaign!).

Here are some interesting factoids revealed when marketers were asked the following:

• Monitoring Twitter for PR problems in real time? While only 50.8% actually tried it, 74.8% reported it “worked great” or “worked a little.”
• Inviting Twitter users with positive brand tweets to do something? 33.2% tried it, 72.1% reported it “worked great” or “worked a little.”
• Contacting Twitter users tweeting negatively about the brand? 22.4% tried it, 72.3% reported it “worked great” or “worked a little.”
• Creating an in-person event using only Twitter invites? 13.5% tried it, 71.8% reported it “worked great” or “worked a little.”
• Using Facebook user data to profile your customers’ demos or interests? 25% tried it, 73.1% reported it “worked great” or “worked a little.”
• Creating a Facebook application around a brand? 24.6% tried it, 73.3% reported it “worked great” or “worked a little.”

Counterproductive Social Media Tactics

MarketingProfs’ expert panel weighed in on the counterproductive tactics many marketers are using today.  Below is a list of a few from the report.  Check them out and see if you or your company fell into any of these social media tactic traps:

• Pushing data: Companies that only push out their own messages and continually dump links to their promotions are missing out on the responses of their followers and fans. When they do this, they are missing the opportunity to engage and build valuable relationships.  This is a sure-fire way to lose followers quickly.
• Treating social media as a short-term campaign: It is easy to spot the companies that are not in it for the long haul and not interested in long-term relationships—just like the previous point, they are the ones pushing data and ignoring their followers.
• Thinking Twitter revolves around you: Two great examples of this are Twitter auto-responders triggered by a follow and not following most people following you on Twitter. These actions speak volumes and tell your followers you are in it for you… not them.

#3:  2010 Social Media Predictions from the Expert Panel

When MarketingProfs asked their panel of experts how social media and social media usage will change in 2010 and how these changes will affect marketers, their predictions touched on the surge of Google Wave, the onset of social media integration and growing skepticism overall. Here’s a snapshot of their predictions:

The Surge of Google Wave

One expert predicts Google Wave will “rock the universe” and thus blur the lines of online communication such as blogging and IM. “Efforts to make it easy for people to ‘take their network with them’ across sites will play an important role in the disruption of user loyalty to various sites and services.”

Social Media Integration

According to Jason Baer, president of Convince & Convert, we’ll begin to see more case studies showing the integration of social media with other prominent marketing initiatives. For example, we’ll see more examples of how social media integrates with email, banner ads, direct mail and customer service.

Social Media Growth and Skepticism

Heidi Cool, an Internet marketing strategist, predicts that social media will continue to grow and more consumers and marketers will get in the game.  And with this continued growth will come social media newbies who will introduce more “missteps along the way” (e.g., increase in Twitter spamming) that could negatively affect how we choose to use the platforms. She notes how thought leader Robert Scoble changed the way he uses Twitter due to the spamming issues and many may follow his lead as more missteps surface.  Cool points out that if “too many new marketers abuse the systems by using auto-following services, only pushing content without listening, etc., it will make users more skeptical of business usage.”

More Opportunity to Capture Market Share

David Alston, vice president of marketing & community for Radian6, predicts that more people will continue to use social media platforms to express their needs and challenges with companies (instead of calling or writing in their grievances). Alston notes that businesses that embrace this form of communication will have the opportunity to capture market share from those who don’t. Marketers that make listening and engaging the core of how they market will begin to grow in numbers because it is how word of mouth is powered and it is much more effective.

The report goes into much more detail and is definitely worth a read.  To check it out, go here.

So now it’s your turn.  What do you think of the findings? Have you or your company been victim to the “counterproductive” social media tactics mentioned above?

#1: Social Media Engagement Big Challenge for Many Businesses (Deloitte)

Survey results from a recent Deloitte study (2009 Tribalization of Business Study), point to some key challenges that organizations are facing as they move toward integrating online communities into their social media strategy.

Here are the top three areas respondents identified as obstacles:

• Keeping visitors engaged:  30%
• Getting people to join:  24%
• Encouraging return visits to the online community:  21%

In addition, the majority of respondents agreed that the following are key business outcomes for their online communities:

• Increase word-of-mouth:  38%
• Increase customer loyalty:  34%
• Increase brand awareness:  30%

#2: Social Media Used as a Discovery Tool by 18% of Online Population (Nielson)

With the recent integration of Twitter and Facebook with Microsoft’s Bing, there is no doubt that social media has become a top player in the world of search.  A recent study by Nielson Company examined the relationship between social media and user search options.  The report compared social sites to search engines and portals like Yahoo! Of those surveyed, 18% reported social media sites as core to finding new information.

Jon Gibs, VP Media Analytics, reports, “While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure. And as social media usage continues to increase I can only expect this figure to grow.”

It is speculated that the amount of information on the web, especially on social sites, contributes to the increase in content discovery on these sites.  The report goes into much more detail and is worth a read.

#3: Businesses Slow to Incorporate Social Media Into Practice

Although numerous recent reports show how businesses plan to incorporate social media into their 2010 marketing mix, a recent study by BIA/Kelsey reports that many small- to medium-sized businesses are slow to incorporate the strategies into their plans today.

When asked about their current social media experiences, results showed many businesses are slow to adopt social media:

• Have used Twitter to market in the last 12 months:  9%
• Have used social sites in the past 12 months:  23%
• Have incorporated video into their website: 16%

In addition, according to the survey results, adoption of social media by small- and medium-sized business is more prevalent among younger businesses:

• Businesses 3 years or younger: 16% report using Twitter
• Businesses 11+ years:  2% report using Twitter

What are your thoughts? What effect, if any, do the constant changes and shifts in social media have on your overall marketing strategy?