11 Apr What Does Your CMO Think About Social Media Marketing?
Professor Christine Moorman at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business has conducted the CMO Survey twice a year since 2008. The survey provides useful insight into several key marketing topics — including social media — from the perspective of the Fortune 1000 CMOs. I’ve been following Professor Moorman’s research for a few years now and thought I’d share some quick social media marketing takeaways from her February 2013 CMO Survey.
The data reflects responses from 468 marketers at large companies (think Fortune 100 and Forbes 200), 95% of whom have a VP title or higher. The companies are a mix of B2B and B2C.
Social Media Budgets Keep Increasing
On average, survey participants spend 8.4% of their marketing budgets on social media today — a fairly small piece of the overall pie, but representative of our experience and marketing visibility. In the next five years; however, the CMOs surveyed expect to spend 21.6% (!!!) of their budget on social media. This represents nearly three times the social media budget growth, which means good times are likely around the corner for social media marketers and community managers seeking out additional resources.
Social Media Integration Problems Persist
Participants expressed that their social media marketing efforts are not very well integrated into overall marketing. On a scale of 1 to 7 – from “not integrated at all” to “very well integrated” – CMOs scored integration an average of 3.8 (with a standard deviation of 1.9). The funny part? That has been the same score four surveys in a row. So CMOs are spending more and more money on social media marketing, but the efforts remain fragmented for the most part.
Social Media Measurement Continues to Evolve
The survey illustrates shifting CMO perspectives on social media measurement. Large firms are shifting away from financial metrics like revenue, revenue per customer, etc., and shifting toward referral measures like Net Promoter Score and audience size. I think that this surfaces an interesting contrast — though CMOs admit that their social media marketing programs aren’t very well integrated with their other programs, their evolving measurement methodology illustrates an integrated, cross-channel perspective.
These are the core social media takeaways from the February 2013 CMO Survey. I suggest checking out the entire study for the complete picture — it surfaces plenty of insights across a broad range of marketing topics including budgets, leadership, and analytics. Take a look and let us know what you think.
