Companies Leverage Social Media to Drive Marketing Improvement

With the rise of social media, the speed and reach of word of mouth with respect to consumer products and services is increasing by orders of magnitude. At the same time, a growing number of companies are deploying technology solutions to harness the power of word of mouth to raise brand awareness, drive marketing improvement and, ultimately, increase shareholder value.

Between June and July 2008, Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, examined the use, the experiences, and the intentions of more than 300 diverse enterprises to create a roadmap for companies that aim to leverage social media to drive marketing improvement. The new benchmark report, entitled “Social Media Marketing: The Latest Buzz on Word of Mouth,” places particular emphasis on how Best-in-Class companies launch successful viral campaigns, form and participate in niche communities, and spur brand advocacy through various other approaches to social media marketing all the while gleaning valuable customer insights from consumer-generated content to inform future marketing actions.

The report reveals striking performance disparities between Best-in-Class organizations and Industry Average and Laggard companies. For example, Best-in-Class organizations are nearly 18 times more likely than Laggards to gain visibility into consumer-generated content, resulting in greater breadth and depth of customer insights. They are also 19 times more likely than Laggards to increase marketing effectiveness and 80 times more likely than Laggards to increase return on marketing investment (ROMI). Given the declining effectiveness of traditional marketing programs due to channel proliferation, audience fragmentation, advertising fatigue, and a host of other factors, any opportunity to drive incremental improvement in ROMI is cause for celebration in the corporate boardroom.

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