I was browsing eMarketer today and found an article telling me that 75% of US companies have a Social Media strategy compared to 2009 where 52% of companies were operating without any strategy. Obviously I gravitated towards it as it was a pretty intriguing headline. Below is one of the graphs I grabbed:
So that sounds good right?
Well that depends on WHAT the strategy actually is. This is the more important deep-dive question and those kind of ‘look how good things are’ headlines sort of piss me off as they are generally misleading.
To put it in context every company has a business plan – that doesn’t stop some of them hitting the wall or screwing up royally. That’s because their business plan is fundamentally wrong. The fact they have one is merely housekeeping.
The same can be said for marketing plans and sales forecasts – we all have them but that doesn’t mean they are right.
However, on the flip side I must say that with 75% of US companies having a strategy of some sort is better news for people like me (and probably you!) because it means that these 75% are realising they need to do something in the area.
I’d like to return to that very post in 12mths time and see a sub-line such as ‘12mths on, X% of them got it right too’…
And they are and apparently they are increasing their spend on social media too:
Excellent – where’s that Sunseeker brochure, I fancy a new tub to sail in…
