Creation of engaging social media content challenging marketers

Meltwater Group’s “Future of Content” report found over three-quarters of companies (78%) consider content marketing to be important.

Email newsletters (62%) and print magazines (61%) are by far the most popular channels followed by social media (49%).

However, in terms of engagement effectiveness “in-person” events are considered the most effective (61%) and social media not so much (37%).

This lack of engagement could be due, in part, to what Meltwater Group refers to a content competency gap. Companies know what they want to achieve from social media but don’t have the knowledge or experience to attain those goals, or indeed measure any achievements that are made.

– 79% of respondents believe social media is “owned” by the marketing department, with around 6 people have some kind of social media responsibility

– Social media responsibility is more likely to be given to those who are enthusiastic about the medium (52%) rather than those with specific social media skills (32%)

– Under half (46%) of companies have a formalized social media policy, 27% have informal guidelines

– The majority of companies (84%) consider it important to track what is being said about them online, yet only 20% have invested in the technology to do so

– 29% intend to invest in social media tracking tools in the coming year.

“New technologies are revolutionizing marketing departments and bring with them a need for a whole new marketing mentality,” concludes the Meltwater Group’s report (.pdf).

“People, policies, processes and technology need to be harnessed in a common direction and progress towards clear goals effectively measured if companies are to make social media a sustainable success story.”