How Salient Is Social Media…..Really?

Last Friday's historic facebook share market float was probably one of history’s most anticipated and high-profile  - and the media has been abuzz thanks to the lacklustre trader response. Analysts are tipping that investors are spooked after General Motors (the US’s 3^rd largest advertiser) has pulled its facebook advertising having deemed it ‘ineffective’. Interesting.

In the same week we came across some really interesting research done by a San Fran communications agency who found that when it comes to social media, it’s us industry folk who are hard-driving the need for it’s inclusion in our marketing mix. It seems we may be deluding ourselves about how much interest the general public really invest in social media.

So while we are champing at the bit to understand how to incorporate all the latest social media destinations into our plans and recommendations (hello Pinterest, hello Instagram, hello Twitter) …these figures show us that what we might actually be achieving is little more than a few notches on our own belts. Our CV’s are going to look great, innovative, up-to-the-minute – but who really cares? Why, us or course.

And it’s quite alarming that over a 30% of the public disagreed that companies should spend more in this space, while only 6% of us industry types disagreed with an increase in spend. And when you look at the figures for who follows brand posts, and who behaves better socially – it is possible that all arrows point to the marketing / advertising industry fraternity as social media junkies who can no longer handle the real world. Isn’t that actually anti-social?

Interestingly too, the documentary ‘Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook’ raised the very question of brand fit for advertising and commercial activity with facebook – a space that was designed and developed to facilitate genuine social connection between individuals with shared history or interest. 

If you missed it – check it out. It's well worth a look.