The Impact of Social Media on PR and Marketing -- Research Conducted by Portfolio
During the summer of 2009, Portfolio Communications conducted research among UK organisations into the impact of social media on their PR and marketing plans. 65 organisations completed the study covering a range of sizes and sectors. A summary of the findings is provided below and the full report, including all of the charts can be downloaded as a PDF, also below.
Sample by job title
Sample by type of organisation
Sample by size of organisation
Summary finding 1: about one in three (35%) of respondents believe that “the impact of social media is now just as, if not more important than traditional media”. This is a very significant finding, which strongly supports the view that a true paradigm shift is taking place; and we expect this figure to rise above 50% within the next 12 months or so as social media continues to grow in importance.
The finding represents both an opportunity and a threat for the PR industry. An opportunity because PR professionals are better placed than other marketers to exploit social media and a threat because the PR industry is so deeply rooted in the ways and means of traditional media that it is likely to find the changes necessary to address social media difficult to embrace.
This is critical because every indicator, from market research findings revealing changing consumer behaviour to the death of regional newspapers as local advertisers desert them for the internet, suggests that social media will become increasingly important.
Summary finding 1 chart: strength of agreement with the following
Summary finding 2: only 10% of organisations have a dedicated social media programme in place with its own dedicated budget, though 31% plan to do so within the next six months. Given the finding above (summary finding 1) it seems extraordinary that only 10% of organisations already have a dedicated social media programme in place. The fact that 31% plan to do so by early 2010 is encouraging but this remains a low figure.
One of the problems this highlights is how organisations are going to fund social media programmes without ‘stealing’ budget from other areas, such as PR and advertising. Already, we have come across a number of examples where organisations have appointed social media programme managers without any budget to support them.
Not only does this smack of weak leadership in the “we have to to do something [to tackle social media] but don’t quite know what” mould, it also encourages budget-holding PR, advertising and other marketing departments to defend their empires. Such a position can be hugely damaging, creating ‘silos’ that work against the very integration of expertise and resources that organisations need to generate competitive advantage as they – and the wider economy – fight to come out of recession.
Summary finding 2 chart: social media activities in place
Summary finding 3: only 29% of organisations currently make use of external blogs, despite the major benefits these and other social media can deliver at relatively low cost. While it takes considerable effort and is time-consuming for an organisation to run its own blog, it is possible to make use of this powerful social medium by contributing to relevant ‘external’ blogs, ie blogs run by others. Indeed, the majority of bloggers welcome such contributions as the posts they create add significant credibility to the blog.
The same is true for other social media. Generating the information to make a corporate Twitter account worth following can be surprisingly time-consuming, even if generating the actual tweets themselves is not. However, it is possible to contribute to social media by pointing to research, market reports, case studies and opinion pieces that can add significant value to a debate while taking remarkably little time to execute.
Summary finding 3 chart: social media used as part of marketing activity
Summary finding 4: many organisations are paying lip-service to the importance of monitoring and analysing social media while doing nothing about it. A common problem that this type of research frequently highlights is the difference between organisations that say something is important and those that do something about it. In this instance there is a consistent difference between the number of organisations saying social media monitoring and analysis is important against the number that are implementing it.
At least some of this difference can be explained by the fact that many organisations recognise the importance of social media monitoring and analysis while not having the budget to do anything about it. However, the powerful influence of social media and the speed with which information propagates and grows means that the importance of monitoring and analysing them should never be under-estimated.
Summary finding 4: organisations consistently recognise the importance of monitoring and analysing social media but frequently do nothing about it
