Do Nothing Is Not An Option On the Search And Social Web

“You can’t do everything!” is likely to be the underlying reason to answers, which respond to surveys asking site owners about their current online marketing and social media activities…

While some eCommerce sites are top heavy with every ad gimmick available and slow down page load, it’s certainly true that every business does need to develop marketing strategies, which have been selected as the most relevant approach to optimising web presence in today’s multi channel environment.

An increasing number of businesses do attempt to become more involved with the search and social web. Some just about find the time for the barest minimum – updating a Facebook page or posting a blog once or twice a month. This is simply because they struggle to find any new content and just rely on product updates or a mundane industry news tweet.

As a result, a company’s resources may simply rely on traditional PPC ad paid search or trying to maintain visitor traffic via optimised SEO keywords. According to the Social Media Examiner, the global online social media magazine, an annual survey of nearly 4,000 businesses revealed that once again, nearly 90 per cent of all marketing endeavours centred around the traditional email marketing campaign.

The second most utilised activity at 65 per cent, was optimising for search engines, just 1 per cent ahead of general event marketing, speaking and presentations. Sending Press Releases stood at third place, used by just over half of businesses, while online PPC ads was mentioned by just under 40 per cent, but below direct mail activity.

Curiously, while nearly 70 per cent of respondents said they actually intended to increase their SEO efforts, over 90 per cent claimed to be using Facebook, some 80 per cent say they are tweeting and just over 60 per cent state they are blogging! In fact, 60 per cent also said they were using social media for 6 hours or more per week.

Undoubtedly, use of social media has gained in popularity and use, and the study showed that outsourcing social media to a web marketing agency had doubled by 14 per cent in 2011 and increased to 30 per cent in 2012. Interestingly, content creation was the third most outsourced task just behind analytics and website design and development at number one.

Saying “you can’t do everything” does not mean you should, therefore, “do nothing”. It’s now crucial to identify the key social paths to audience engagement as an integral part of everyday marketing activities. No company is identical and each business has unique requirements.

It’s mostly to do with either finding the time to listen, learn and engage or simply outsourcing to those who know how to participate in social content creation and can bring effective audience response.