Village Gamer

What’s the value of a tweet or Facebook “like”? That’s a key question for many marketing executives, according to a new survey from The Creative Group. More than one in four (27%) advertising and marketing executives interviewed said their greatest stumbling block when it comes to social media is measuring the success of their efforts. Finding knowledgeable staff to execute social media programs is problematic for 19% of respondents.

The Canadian survey was developed by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service for interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals, and conducted by an independent research firm.

Advertising and marketing executives were asked, “When it comes to implementing social media initiatives, which of the following would you consider to be the greatest challenge for your agency/firm?” Their responses:

Measuring or defining return on investment..................  27%
Finding knowledgeable staff to execute social media tasks...  19%
Gaining executive support for social media initiatives......  17%
Finding budget for social media initiatives.................  14%
Other.......................................................   1%
Don't know/no answer........................................   5%
                                                             -----
                                                             101% (Due to rounding)

“It’s not always easy to determine which social media channels and forms of outreach via these sites are most beneficial for a business,” said Lara Dodo, regional vice president of The Creative Group in Canada. “Tracking a variety of metrics, like numbers of retweets or shares, can provide a more complete picture of the success of a social media campaign, but it can’t capture everything since many marketing campaigns, social media included, are designed to build brand awareness over a long timeframe.”

Finding the right people to plan, execute and monitor social media programs has its own set of challenges. “Hiring managers should look for candidates who are passionate about using social media, but more importantly, who can spot trends and identify solutions to real-world business problems, using sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.”

The Canadian study was developed by The Creative Group and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on more than 250 telephone interviews — approximately 200 with marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees and 50 with advertising executives randomly selected from agencies with 20 or more employees.