Marketing Research Chart: Top tactics for effective social media marketing

by Sergio Balegno, Director of Research

Comparing tactical usage, degree of difficulty and level of effectiveness per social media tactic



Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart


Cross-tabulating response data across multiple questions in a survey can provide an interesting perspective on research findings. Here, we combine data from three questions about social marketing tactics: The level of effectiveness on achieving objectives; the degree of difficulty in implementing each tactic; and the percentage of organizations using them.

What we found, more often than not, is that “fast and easy” trumps effectiveness when it comes to determining which social media tactics to implement. For example, the most effective tactic, blogger relations, is used by far fewer organizations than other less effective tactics. The reason? As a tactic, blogger relations has the highest degree of difficulty in terms of time, effort and expense.

This focus on “fast and easy” versus effectiveness is a problem far more prevalent among organizations not working from a strategic social marketing plan. As organizations in the Strategic phase of social marketing maturity develop a strategy, they create a tactical plan of action before selecting the social media sites on which they will use these tactics. Starting with a tactical plan and a purpose for each site enables an organization to execute more tactics, more effectively.

For additional research data and insights, download and read the free Executive Summary from the MarketingSherpa 2011 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.

Useful links related to this chart

Members Library -- Webinar Replay: Strategic Social Media Marketing: Get your business or agency started with an ROI-based approach

Members Library -- Marketing Research Chart: Top metrics used for measuring social marketing impact

Members Library -- Marketing Research Chart: Top social media objectives for 2011

MarketingSherpa 2011 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report