Are Brands Ditching Social Media?

Social media still leaves some marketers baffled and only a third are actively employing social to promote new products. Another third are abandoning social platforms after failing to make them work to their advantage, Decision Marketing reports.

The article quotes a new report by Catalogues 4 Business (C4B) as saying that while 31% of businesses in the UK have embraced social media, 20% are yet to undertake the task of developing a social media strategy.

Compared to a 2013 study, the results from the new report reveal a 36% drop in usage. This could indicate that many businesses initially include social media in their marketing strategies before ultimately giving up on it.

Although the medium’s popularity among businesses may have slipped a little, social media still remains the fifth most effective marketing tool they have, the report shows. The study shows that 14% of respondents said their social media strategy works well and is successful in delivering sales.

Another thing the study found was that many businesses use social media together with a catalogue in their marketing campaigns, revealing that 33% of socially active businesses also incorporate a catalogue into their strategy. Also, some 46% of companies which relied on e-mail marketing used a catalogue to complement their chosen strategy.

The study looked into what social media platforms businesses choose for their social media marketing endeavours. The most popular platforms among businesses are Facebook (40%), LinkedIn (35%) and Twitter (33%). Google+ comes last, with 17% of businesses using it when executing a social media strategy.