With Twitter doubling in size and Facebook ramping up new users as it were free, the hype surrounding social networks has reached, well, Internet proportions.
Social media “gurus” have begun popping up like weeds in spring, and yes, a certain backlash to the linky lovefest was inevitable. Thus, we point you towards a report from online researchers Knowledge Networks, which suggests social media’s affect on the population is vastly overrated (via a Media Post article):
Among other things, the study finds that less than 5% of social media users regularly turn to these social networks for “guidance on purchase decisions” in any of nine product and/or service categories (see table below), and that only 16% of social media users say they are more likely to buy from companies that advertise on social sites.Based on the findings, Knowledge Networks categorizes the value of social media advertising “somewhere in the long tail” of marketing options, way below TV ads and personal, word-of-mouth recommendations.
“Obviously, a lot of people are using social media, but they are not explicitly turning to it for marketing purposes, or for finding out what products to buy. It’s really about connecting with friends, or connecting with other people,” says Dave Tice, vice president and group account director at Knowledge Networks, and the top analyst behind the report. “What we’re seeing is that word-of-mouth is still the No. 1 most influential source, followed by TV. The influence of social media isn’t at the bottom of the list, but it is somewhere in the long tail of marketing – about the same as print ads, or online [display] ads.”
The online marketing boot camp I’m teaching to small/micro business owners tends to bear out the above contentions; only two of the 28 entrepreneurs in my class know anything at all about social media.
Next week’s classes look hard at social media channels, and the students – while eager to learn – are asking questions like “how much time will this take?”
I developed my online marketing curriculum with the realization that – unlike so many of those touting the power of social networks for corporations – my students have businesses to run, which often involves not staring at a computer screen for hours on end.
I love the engagement potential of social networks, but find the hype – and the raft of “experts” who have zero experience generating revenue for a company – troubling.
Then there’s the troubling ROI question dogging social media (explored on the Ad Contrarian blog). The ROI of email and search strategies is relatively well known (or at least relatively easy to measure). Social media remains two steps further removed from the media stream, and until that connection can be more firmly established, I’m advising my small business clients to experiment
Like water, hyper-connected social networks will eventually find their own level in the marketing watershed. Until then, I’m advising my students (and clients) to step carefully – and to carefully evaluate their time investments in social media against the returns they could find elsewhere.
Stay engaged, Tom Chandler.