Marketers Embracing Social Media

There has often been a lot of skepticism surrounding social media. Companies might fear the unknown, or the possible backlash if not executing a campaign properly. However, it appears that times are changing as fewer marketers are resisting the social media revolution. eMarketers recently published an article highlighting just how many marketers are using and embracing social media. According to eMarketers, 59% of brand marketers are currently using social media. Of those who participated in the survey and who aren’t currently using social media, 23% said they would be within the next year. This would bring the total percentage of marketers using social media to 82%. Comparatively, only 13% indicate having no plans to enter the medium.

As social media becomes more commonplace in business practices, there are many concerns still holding companies and organizations back. The same article published by eMarketers states, “[a]mong brand marketers, 37% did not know enough about social media to begin, and another 37% said there was no good way to measure its effectiveness. Agency marketers reiterated those concerns, and were also likely to say that social media was not proven or tested as a marketing strategy (31%)”. How can agencies and brands begin to lose the barriers they see in social media?