According to Marketing Sherpa’s latest research:

Considering that social marketing is at a very early stage in its life cycle, a 7% confidence rating indicating that it’s producing measurable ROI and therefore should be funded liberally, is outstanding.

Conservative budget increases by half of all organizations at budget time — based on the promise that social media will eventually produce ROI — demonstrate another vote of confidence in the tactic for the longer term.

via MarketingSherpa: New Chart: How is Social Media Perceived at Budget Time?.

Wendy’s Note: Where does social media as a channel belong in your business budget? If you only view it as a marketing tactic, you are wrong. If you only view it as a sales tactic, you may be sorry.  Maybe you are not ready for a huge line item in your budget, but this research suggests that you budget more than Zero.

Social media doesn’t work well started in a vacuum and separated from the other points of customer engagement within a company. As you consider building your listening station, creating your strategy and assigning resources within the company, begin a “right size” effort that you can commit to.  Then relocate budget allocations from customer service, human resources, product development as well as sales and marketing.  You may easily create a budget that will get one or two individuals spending 20 minutes per day doing what we all really want – building business relationships before, during and after the sale.

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