Social Media – Are Agencies Prepared to Meet Future Challenges of Marketing?

Social Media has come up as a major marketing requirement for most businesses. However, are existing agencies really equipped and prepared to meet this emerging new distribution channel? A recent survey was conducted by TNS Media Intelligence about whether agencies are ready to deal with social media marketing.

Clients from New York and around the country are emphasizing more and more about the need for their agency to provide expertise regarding Social Media Marketing. However, according to a survey it has been revealed that agencies are not properly equipped in helping their clients in the social media space.

A polling survey was conducted by TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony in order to gauge the rate of success of various marketers in the social media space. In this survey, more than 60 marketers across 3 countries (U.K., France and North America) were polled. The polling survey of TNS asked these marketing professionals about the ability of their agencies in helping their clients in social media space. The result published by TNS says that “"Agencies don't get it”.

One of the main complaints of the New York based clients about their agencies (including public relations, creative, media, design and others) is that social media (such as blogs) are treated by the agencies as typical traditional media. These agencies have miniscule hands-on experience and practical skills on social media networking, video sharing, etc.

One of the marketing specialists of FedEx, Bryan Simkins, has told TNS that traditional Advertisement agencies can merely contribute to social media marketing. This is due to the fact that these Ad agencies are driven by their respective compensation models, which are appropriate for closed media. However, these compensation models are ineffective in case of open media and consequently the traditional Ad agencies can only nominally help their clients with social media marketing.

Social Media has brought about a paradigm shift in the concept of marketing. With every passing day, the popularity of this media is increasing by leaps and bounds. This is the reason why analysts have felt the necessity of highlighting the lack of properly skilled social media professionals at different agencies. In fact, a report published by Forrester Research has pointed out that most of the agencies are ill equipped in helping their clients in leveraging opportunities through community connections. Thus, these Ad agencies are not properly structured in accepting the marketing challenges of tomorrow. This has become a serious concern for the agencies because more and more of their clients are asking for social media marketing campaigns, but the agencies are not properly structured to meet their needs.

It has been found that clients complain that the agencies sound good when they give presentations on social media. However, when it comes to the implementation of social media campaigns, a mismatch is taking place between marketer’s expectations and the daily management skills.

According to Suzuki’s E-business Manager, Mr. David Harris, the existing partners of marketing don’t have a clear perception on social media. Thus, they tend to make grave mistakes when they try to apply old models of advertising and marketing to social media.

The polling survey of TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony has also revealed the fact that 50% of the total sample of marketers have stressed on handling the social media efforts at executive level, through proper utilization of significant resources. Another 30 % of the surveyed marketers have regarded that the social media landscape is a “revolutionary opportunity.”

Scott Wilder of Intuit has regarded social media as a Pandora’s Box, where consumers are relying more and more on word of mouth for evaluating products as well as companies.

Social media can be utilized by the organizations for customer service, public relation and marketing. That’s why these organizations are finding it difficult to incorporate these new genres of communication tools in a specific division.

TNS’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Jim Nail, has predicted that lack of social media skills at various renowned agencies would create opportunities for new providers. Fila USA’s E-Marketing Manager, Carolyn Holliday, has stressed on the fact that it has become a necessity for companies to keep communicating with their customers, both potential as well as existing ones, in addition to regular practice of Ad placement. This is where prudent utilization of social media comes into play. Thus, opportunities galore for new providers in filling up the existing void of social media space.

The goal for an automated social network is to give our clients the best automated social network marketing system on the planet. We give each client a unique username and password for their dedicated social network broadcast. We let our clients WRITE ONCE and then we PUBLISH GLOBALLY using our social network broadcasting service. Having a social networking broadcast system available to distribute your message across the SocialSphere once a week is a powerful new arrow in your quiver of marketing tools.

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