Companies Continue to Fund Social Media Initiatives (Even Though Many Really Don’t Get It)

Shaky economy and tight budgets notwithstanding, companies still recognize the potential of social media to help their businesses.

Computerworld‘s Mitch Betts reports on a recent Deloitte LLP survey that shows an overwhelming percentage of respondents intend to “maintain or increase their investments in social media tools and online communities.”

Specifically, 94% of the 400 companies surveyed said they’d keep spending as much or more on social media going forward, with only 6% reporting they would cut social media spending.

This despite the rather primitive efforts to measure the ROI of social media. As Betts reports:

Businesses use metrics such as the number of active users and how many people post or comment to gauge the success of their social networking efforts.

And what are the top goals of corporate social media initiatives? Deloitte’s 2009 Tribalization of Business Survey reports:

Increasing word of mouth — 38%
Customer loyalty — 34%
Brand awareness — 30%
Idea generation — 29%
Improved customer support quality — 23%

There’s a potential problem inherent in those numbers. As Deloitte concludes:

In the majority of companies surveyed, marketing continues to be the primary driver of online communities, resulting in a significant gap between community goals and the organizations’ capability to fully leverage these communities on an enterprise wide basis.

In other words, most people who are members of online communities don’t really want to be the targets of marketing campaigns. Yet that’s what many companies see as the primary value and purpose of social media. That’s a real disconnect.

You can read more details of the survey here.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.