Social Marketing - When Will it Level Off?

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 03:39:00 GMT

I must admit I have become enamored with the various social media sites that have populated the web over the last decade. I mean, where else can you connect with Aunt Betty all while enjoying your mid morning cup of joe and commiserating over your portfolio on E-Trade? Man, talk about an efficient set up to match our fast-paced world. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and other social media sites have garnered more than their fair share of marketing dollars in recent years and heck, why wouldn't they? With millions of new users monthly climbing on the social media bandwagon, advertisers are clamoring to "reach out and touch someone" as Ma Bell would say by flipping higher percentages of their marketing budgets to social media giants like Facebook. As eMarketer Daily points out in a recent article, "ROI is a top concern for online marketers, and just over one-half think 2010 is the year social media marketing will meet their need for measurability." See the chart below.

While I'm not exactly going out on on a limb when I say that social media marketing is in the growth stage of the proverbial product life cycle, the question still remains how long it will stay there. Given the skyrocketing increase in users and the fact that social media was something that only took flight as recently as George W's reign in the White House, I'm betting that the social media phenom won't be entering the maturity stage of the product life cycle any time soon. That should allow Ashton Kutcher a little more time to work on increasing his "piddly" number of several million Twitter followers :)

Chris Appleton's Blog

Social Marketing - When Will it Level Off?