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A Paradox Among Chief Marketing Executives

By: Christi Dixon | 12/08/2008

A recent survey tells us that the majority of CMOs aren't as enamored with social networks as we might think.

Despite the cultural phenomenon that Facebook and MySpace have become in the past few years, 55% of top-brand CMOs said they're not too interested (22%), or not interested at all (33%), in incorporating these and similar social-networking sites into their marketing strategies.

Honestly, I think this reflects the target markets of the CMOs who were interviewed. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social networks have distinct differences in how they engage users, create group loyalty and promote causes/events. If a CMO is doing his or her job, they should be matching their digital communication strategy with the needs of the consumer...

Here are two excerpts worth sharing (and debating), which paradoxically indicate that, at the same time, CMOs are becoming more open to using "non-traditional" communication tools:

Marketing executives are much more interested in other elements of the social-media mix, such as internet forums (52%), webcasts and podcasts (47%), email (47%), blogs (37%) and webinars (52%). All of these approaches outscored Facebook and MySpace (35%), in terms of being social media elements that marketing executives said they are very interested or somewhat interested in using.

Paradoxically, 27% of CMOs identified social networking and word-of-mouth - ahead of all other elements of traditional or digital marketing - as the tool they most want to introduce to their marketing mix to compensate for anticipated budget cuts, and 12% of marketers doing it now said it would be the "last to go" in the face of budget cutbacks.

This leaves me wondering, though. How many of these CMOs are also overseeing reputation management, employee communication or community relations? If you're an acting CMO, you'd want your marketing and communications efforts aligned... and digital communications can help you do just that. I'm also left wondering about the importance of the "social-media" mix in truly promoting dialogue and two-way communication (I view this to be the biggest strength of social media... you can actually get to know your consumer and hear from them!). This is definitely a survey I'll be watching in the coming months.

Posted in Digital Communications