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Marketers are still grappling with the best way to incorporate
social media tactics into their overall plans and strategy

Reality ch
Despite the perceived prevalence of the use of
social media in the marketing world, there are
many companies that are still cautiously entering
the space, according to the first annual PRWeek/
MS&L Social Media Survey. By Kimberly Maul
W
hen General Motors introduced its “[With] Twitter on the cover of Time, social net-
reorganization as the “new” GM in working on the cover of BusinessWeek, and President
June, it looked to social media as a way Obama as the marketer of the year, social media is a
to reach stakeholders, create a dialogue, seminal topic,” says Jim Tsokanos, president of North
and demonstrate that it understood the worries of its America for MS&L. “But despite that, 66% of com-
audience. Working with MS&L, the company used munications professionals have not made changes”
Facebook and Twitter, even offering up its CEO to to products or marketing based on customer feedback
answer questions via the microblogging service. gleaned from social media, according to the survey.
“We were an extremely big piece of the communi- The survey also found that 49% of companies do not
cations plan around the Chapter 11 filing and the have a specific approach regarding the use of social
reorganization,” says Christopher Barger, director of media on behalf of the company. Ten percent discourage
social media for GM. The company used Twitter pri- employees to use social media to communicate on behalf
marily, tweeting nearly 200 times within 24 hours, of the company, while 22% allow only marketing and
answering questions and concerns. “People respected the communications employees to use social media on behalf
fact that we were out there and trying to be open.” of the organization. Twenty percent of companies encour-
Social media has definitely become part of the every- age all employees to use social media channels to share
day consciousness of consumers. Though several compa- messages on behalf of the company or its brands.
nies like GM are fully embracing the phenomenon as a
marketing tool, the first-annual PRWeek/MS&L Social Opportunity for everyone
Media Survey found that many companies are still “I don’t think it’s a discipline, strategy, or tactic that
behind the social media curve. needs to be run by a specific discipline, because I think
Of the 271 marketers surveyed, 37% report that social media has the chance to open up entire opportu-
their company does not include any social media tools nities across an organization,” says Bonin Bough, global
as part of marketing efforts. Of the 63% that do use director of digital and social media at PepsiCo, citing
social media, 67% use social networking, 46% use digital how HR professionals can use social media.
video and audio tools, 45% use blogs, 33% use micro- “When we live in the world of the empowered con-
blogging services like Twitter, 28% use RSS feeds, and sumer and everyone has a point of view, and they
16% use Wikis. share it at the speed of light, for companies to not have
34/prweekus.com/October 2009

check
policies in place to guide how social media can be uti-
lized by their employees, I thought was very interesting,”
Tsokanos adds.
37%
report that
For the companies that are using social media in mar- their company
keting, there are different reasons for doing so. When does not include
asked about the top three uses of social media within any social media
their companies, 47% manage and monitor customer tools as part
of marketing
feedback, while 40% reach key influencers. Other uses efforts
include understanding the consumer and competitive
landscape (39%), creating brand communities and fan
pages (32%), media relations (31%), lead generation
(31%), product launches (28%), product reviews (19%),
and monitoring conversations (6%).
“Twitter, Facebook, these are our branches,” says Jim
Kelly, COO of ING Direct. “These are the ways we’re
having the conversations that people in an office or a
branch might have with customers on a daily basis.”
“THERE IS A TIME FOR ING Direct started using social media about a year
ago as a way to communicate with customers who had
SELLING AND A TIME worries about the economy and finances. As a virtual
FOR CONVERSATION. bank, the brand was able to use social networks to engage
customers in conversations about financial issues and
OUR FOCUS IS ON topics. Earlier this year, the company hosted tweet-
THE CONVERSATION“ ups, connecting with consumers off-line at the bank’s
Jim Kelly, ING Direct café in New York.
“Almost 85% of our transactions are done by customers
over the Web,” says Kelly. “The last thing I want to see is
OVERALL USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATION
Which of the following social media tools are you using in What are the biggest barriers to successfully incorporating social media into
your company’s marketing efforts? your marketing campaigns?
50 60
50
40
40
30
30
20 20
10 10
0
0 Lack of Lack of Not Lack Lack of Lack of Social Fear Lack of Lack of
Social Digital Blogs Microblogs RSS feeds Wikis None of internal knowledge, convinced of clear awareness budget media not negative global appropriate
networking audio/video (e.g., Twitter) these resources/ expertise about the guidelines/ of social appropriate reaction reach/ agency
time value/ROI policies media for co./ from our scale partner
within co. brand customers
Base: 271 Base: 271
October 2009/prweekus.com/35

an ad for a mortgage on Facebook. There is a dialogue worked with Federated Media to get blogs written about
going on there and we have a voice – I would say it’s the launch, distributed videos virally, and used a count-
consumer-friendly – and we want to be a part of that down clock to the launch to build buzz.
dialogue if we can do that.” Ford’s social media outreach also takes into account
Handling social media internally, the brand has a the global nature of its business, explains Scott Monty,
presence on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. It also digital and multimedia communications manager. “Our
offers savings widgets on iGoogle, reviews of its cafés social media strategy is pretty simple,” he says. “It is
on Yelp, and financial advice on a We the Savers blog. essentially to humanize the company by connecting our
The survey found that 91% of companies manage social constituents with our employees and with each other
media strategy internally, compared to 9% that use an when possible, to provide value along the way.”
external partner.
Marcy Shinder, VP of brand management for Ameri- Local focus
can Express Open, says the company saw social media According to the survey, 64% of respondents say their
becoming more popular around September 2008. The social media focus is local, compared to 36% who say it
brand launched the New Economy Blog in response is global. Additionally, 55% take a long-term approach,
to the economic situation at the time and worked to versus 45% who prefer a short-term one, and 55% work
provide more information about social media to its small- to shape the conversations about the brand, compared
business-owner members. to 45% who use social media to listen to conversations
American Express Open, which works with AOR about the brand.
M Booth, launched a specific social media cam- “Like PR, social media is very local,” Tsokanos says.
6.7%
of marketing
paign in July, promoting the official launch of its Open
Forum, a social network for small business owners.
“We’re seeing that business owners are becoming
“So as the marketplace shifts and changes, being able
to provide global scale is really going to be important.
That’s where we want to be with social media.”
budgets are
being dedicated more engaged with social media,” adds Shinder. “Our “The objective for us is to be where our members
to social media marketing was almost entirely viral.” Twitter is the site’s are, so that’s why we’re not just in one place,” adds
programs third-highest ranking driver of traffic, and the brand Nataki Clarke, director of marketing for AARP, which
last year relaunched AARP.org and got more involved
THE RESPONDENTS
in social media. “The strategy is to really use these
Which best describes your title? vehicles to have a two-way conversation with them,
35 which is a risk because you’re not always going to love
30
what they have to say.”
In companies where funds are being shifted for social
25 media, 48% is coming from advertising, 40% from di-
20 rect marketing, 29% from media planning and buying,
15
and 18% from PR.
A majority of companies, 59%, reported that there is
10 no specific funding for social media activity, while 31%
5 said funding is being shifted from other marketing and
0 communications budgets, and 10% are establishing addi-
VP of SVP of
marketing marketing
CMO VP-other Director/ Marketing Senior Brand
assoc. dir. manager marketing manager
Product
manager
Other tional funding and new budgets specifically for social
of mktg. manager media. On average, 6.7% of marketing budgets are being
Base: 271
dedicated to social media programs.
As far as where social media activity falls in the mar-
FOCUS OF SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS
keting mix, both American Express Open and AARP
Which of the following best represents your social media business focus? say PR or corporate communications leads social media,
while Kelly says marketing leads it at ING Direct. GM’s
Listening to conversations
about the brand Barger says communications led social media in the past,
but with the company’s reorganization, marketing is
Short-term helping more in that space.
Global
In the future, 56% of respondents believe marketing
will manage social media activities going forward; 18%
say PR; 6% say digital; 6% say a separate social media
group; and 14% believe it will be a new hybrid depart-
Local Long-term
ment of marketing, PR, and communications.
Shaping conversations
Tsokanos tells PRWeek that he sees resources and
about the brand funding for social media “coming from everywhere.”
“Both business and communications are going through
Base: 271
a revolution, if not a complete transformation,” he
36/prweekus.com/October 2009

Evolution of social media strategy
PepsiCo
“It’s amazing, the shift that tions, and campaigns into con-
we’ve seen,” says Bonin Bough, versations. Recently, its Gatorade
global director of digital and brand combined a Michael Jordan
social media for PepsiCo. “Now broadcast TV spot with social
you can actually openly have a media, encouraging fans to post
conversation, an actual live con- their memories of Jordan and his
versation with companies about legacy on Facebook.
almost anything.” The company continues to
Bough, who joined the com- evolve by bringing in perspec-
pany in September 2008, says tives from the outside. PepsiCo
PepsiCo started off by getting is “constantly bringing thought
on a variety of different network- leaders in the space to sit down
ing sites for each of its brands. with us and collaborate with us,”
It is currently working to really Bough explains. “It’s making sure
integrate social media into the that you’re bringing a lot of new
overall “ecosystem of communi- thinking into the organization on
cations and marketing,” and a continual basis to collaborate
shift impressions into connec- with you.”
adds. “While it is more of a communications mind-grab
today, in the future, social media will certainly be focused
on business generation.”
convinced of the value or ROI. Other barriers include
lack of internal resources or time (53%), lack of clear
guidelines or policy (38%), lack of awareness of social
56%
of respondents
And being able to accurately measure how social media within the company (37%), and fear of negative believe that
media impacts a business is an important element reaction from consumers (16%). marketing will
for a brand getting into the space. “People either don’t manage social
have a clear knowledge and understanding [of social The ROI question media activities
going forward
media] or they don’t have the necessary tools to measure Sara Greenstein, SVP and CMO of product safety
ROI,” he says. company Underwriters Laboratories (UL), says, “It’s
Indeed the survey shows that 43% of respondents the kind of thing that instincts tell you it’s the right
report a lack of knowledge or expertise as a barrier to thing to do and you’ve got to be there, but we’ve yet to
using social media, and 39% report that they are not prove how to measure that return on investment.”
UL did its first social media campaign in the fourth
FUNDING quarter of 2008, reaching out to mothers of young
Which of the following best describes how social media children. The company, working with its consumer AOR
activity is currently being funded at your company?
MS&L, used Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and blogs to
spread the message of public safety.
Additional funding and The timing of introducing social media worked because
new budgets have been
established to support the campaign “had a big push and some momentum,”
investments in social media adds Greenstein. “Our thought was, ‘We’re doing a
There is no funding for
social media activity
comprehensive, integrated campaign; let’s try to feed
them some information they can feed each other.’”
Funding for social She says UL saw a lot of customer response to its
media is being shifted
from budgets that in the presence on social networking platforms, but nothing
past were committed
to other marketing and that she would deem a true measurement of ROI.
comms activities “We’ll do it this year and see how it can compare
Base: 271
to last year,” notes Greenstein. “But that’s not what I
would call a true ROI.”
October 2009/prweekus.com/37

The survey found that companies are using a wide range SPENDING SHIFTS
of tools to measure the effectiveness of social media cam- From which of the following disciplines is funding being
shifted to support investments in social media?
paigns. Fifty-four percent of companies that have done a
50
social media campaign in the last year monitored impact
on Web site traffic, while 42% measured impact on sales 40
and revenue. Others measured impact on brand awareness
and favorability (37%), share of online discussion (37%), 30
and pickup in mainstream media (19%).
Beyond proving ROI, Greenstein adds that another 20
49%
of companies
barrier is that companies aren’t ready to have that kind
of risk around their reputations. AARP’s Clarke agrees.
“I honestly think the biggest barrier is that lots of
10
0
do not have a companies aren’t used to having that two-way dialogue,” Advertising Direct Media PR Other
marketing planning/
specific approach
regarding social
she says. “It is risky to the brand, but I think the rewards buying
Base: 84
media use on far outweigh the risk.”
behalf of the Shinder at American Express Open sees how small bu-
company sinesses can be afraid to get involved with social media. SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT
“I think barrier number one is that To which of the following aspects of business is social
media activity “very important”?
they don’t know what’s in it for
60
them,” she says. “And since they
don’t know what’s in it for them, 50
they don’t make it a priority.” 40
She says American Express Open
30
works to explain the value of social
media, including using it as a way to 20
promote their businesses, stay con- 10
nected to customers, and keep up with 0
competitors and trends. Connecting Building Managing Generating
with the company corporate sales and
Increasing/ Managing
maintaining crisis
Managing
stakeholder
The survey sought respondents’ customers or brand reputation revenue
awareness
market
share
opinions of
company
opinion about how important so- Base: 271
cial media activity is to several
aspects of business and communi-
cations. Of those who use social IMPORTANCE
Which of the following will have the most impact on the
success of your company or brand over the next year?
“WE ARE GOING TO BE ADDING Media buying/planning
RESOURCES THIS YEAR IN ORDER Social media
TO TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL“ Direct marketing
Sara Greenstein, Underwriters Laboratories PR
media at their company, 65% said it is very important
for connection to customers, compared to only 35% of Advertising
those who do not use social media at their company. Base: 271
Sixty-three percent said it was very important for
building company or brand awareness, compared to 34%
of those who do not use social media. As far as managing
corporate reputation, 49% at companies that use social
media in marketing say it’s very important, compared to
65% 63% 49%
of those who of those who of those who
34% at companies that do not use social media. use social media use social media use social media
Only 29% of respondents who use social media said it at their company at their company at their company
was very important for crisis communications, compared say it is “very say it is “very say it is “very
to 18% of those who do not use social media. The dis- important” for important” for important”
connecting with building brand for managing
parity in response between these groups clearly shows customers awareness reputation
that those who have not used social media are not quite
convinced of its value or purpose.
38/prweekus.com/October 2009

54%
of respondents
OVERSIGHT
Is there a need for a credible third-party source to provide
social media ethics and standards, or do you believe the Web
should be self-governed?
“We find it a very positive vehicle or medium because
basically we’re interacting with consumers and guests in a
genuine, real manner,” says Mark Chmiel, EVP and CMO
believe marketers of Denny’s. “It’s real time; it’s real comments. Even the
are following negative ones, we want to hear it and make it better.”
ethical guidelines Denny’s started getting involved with social media a
in social media
A credible third-party little more than a year ago. As a hospitality brand, the
the same as they
did a year ago
source is needed to
provide social media
ability to connect with its customers was a huge draw.
ethics and standards The restaurant chain particularly turned to social media
for its All-Nighter program, engaging with a young-
The Web should be er demographic around music and food using social
self-governed media like Twitter and Facebook. Denny’s works with
Filter, the AOR for the All-Nighter program, for social
Base: 271
media support. Hill & Knowlton helps the company
with more traditional PR.
ETHICS
Maintaining ethics
Which, if any, of the following activities have been part of your company’s No matter how much social media work a company
social media programs?
engages in, Chmiel emphasizes that integrity and ethics
60
are of the utmost importance.
50
“The biggest barrier is maintaining a real integrity,”
40 he says. “We identify who we are. Some companies, they
30 may go into it with an anonymous masquerading. We
20 do the exact opposite. We’re a company that engages and
10
wants to converse in this social environment.
“You have to remember,” Chmiel continues, “as much
0
Positioning Changing content Removing Offering gifts Paying cash None of these as we can use social media to build our brand, build sales,
our company- related to your negative for company or for company
generated content company that comments or blog reviews or product and so on, it can just as quickly boomerang on you if you’re
as consumer- others have posted content from blog reviews
generated in social media social media not sincere and straightforward with the consumer.”
According to the survey, 54% of respondents believe
Base: 271
the marketing industry is following ethical guidelines
Evolution of social media strategy
Ford Motor Company
Though Ford has been using customers, and potential
social media in various forms customers, are. Ford also
for a number of years, “it introduced TheFordStory.com,
wasn’t until last year that we a social media hub, bringing
really started to get serious together Ford-generated and
about it and put a strategy consumer-generated content.
in place to really address The plan is all about incor-
it,” says Scott Monty, digital porating social media to reach
and multimedia communica- various company constituents:
tions manager. retirees, dealers, and suppli-
Monty came on in July ers, to name a few. And with-
2008, and the brand started in the brand, work with social
looking to sites like Face- media is becoming more inte-
book, Twitter, YouTube, and grated. Monty says, “We’re
Flickr as a way to humanize seeing more of a synergy
the company, connect with between PR and marketing
constituents, and be where than we ever have before.”
40/prweekus.com/October 2009

in social media the same as it did a year ago, with 20% PERSONAL USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
reporting that companies follow guidelines less, and Which of the following social media platforms do you use
primarily for personal reasons?
27% say that companies follow guidelines more.
80
“I believe the industry is working harder to follow
70
guidelines in what seems to be a changing-by-the-day
landscape of social media,” says Paul Rand, president 60
and CEO of Zócalo Group and president-elect of the 50
Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). 40
“But I do think giving people continued clarity and 30
direction is really a good thing.” 20
The survey asked respondents about several practices 10
within social media that could be considered ethically 0
Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Twitter MySpace Flickr Digg
questionable. Though 57% of those surveyed say they
have not engaged in any of the listed activities, 21% have Base: 271
positioned company-generated content as consumer-
generated content, 13% have changed content about
the brand on sites like Wikipedia, 11% have removed USE OF FEEDBACK
negative comments or content from social media, 7% have Have you ever made a change to your products or marketing
efforts based on consumer feedback from social media sites?
offered gifts for company or product blog reviews, and
“IN THE FUTURE, SOCIAL MEDIA YES
WILL CERTAINLY BE FOCUSED ON
BUSINESS GENERATION“
Jim Tsokanos, MS&L NO
4% have offered payment for com- Base: 271
pany or product blog reviews.
“The first two are surprising to
hear,” Rand says. “Anything that (61%); and managing stakeholder opinions of the com-
really smacks of a lack of transpar- pany or its brands (48%). Crisis management was the only
ency or a lack of disclosure auto- aspect where more respondents believe the impact will
matically goes into the realm of be the same (49%) than more (41%).
‘use your head and don’t do it.’” UL is already planning the next phase in its social media
WOMMA has been working to strategy. After not allocating enough resources to keep the
update its Ethics Code Guidelines, program ongoing, “We are launching again in Q4 and it
and even recently clarified its point on will be in a sustained fashion going forward into 2010
providing any type of compensation and beyond,” Greenstein says. “We are going to be adding
for product reviews or endorsements. resources this year in order to take it to the next level.”
Tsokanos says MS&L works “The best value I can describe from what we’ve done so
with WOMMA guidelines. “It’s far is that customers are happy that we’re there and that
something that the industry should we’re engaging them using this medium,” ING Direct’s
79%
of respondents
develop together as guiding principles,” he notes. “It
should be something that is enforced and supported by
the industry and not the government.”
Kelly says. “I think there is a time for selling and there is
a time for conversation. And where we’re going to keep
our focus is on the conversation.” ●
say social media
will have more Looking ahead The PRWeek/MS&L Social Media Survey was conducted by
of an impact on Going forward, social media will continue to be an im- PRWeek and CA Walker. E-mail notification and invitation
connecting with portant part of communications and business, according to complete the survey was sent to approximately 7,385
consumers in the
next year or two to the survey. The majority of respondents say that marketing executives. A total of 271 respondents completed
social media will have more of an impact on the following the survey between June 25 and June 30, 2009.
aspects over the next year or two: connection to custom- Results were not weighted. At this sample size, results are
ers (79%); building company or brand awareness (76%); associated with a +/-5.1 margin of error. This article only offers
generating sales and revenue (63%); increasing or maintain- a summary of survey findings. Full results are available for
ing market share (62%); managing corporate reputation purchase for $150 by e-mailing Erica.iacono@prweek.com.
42/prweekus.com/October 2009