Social Media Examiner recently asked 5,086 marketers whether social media marketing improves sales. The findings speak volumes:
- One-third of marketers with less than one year's experience in social media marketing say it improves sales, while
- Two-thirds of marketers with more than five years' experience in social media marketing say it improves sales.
As a marketer's experience in social media marketing increases, so does her belief in its efficacy.
Digital marketer Jay Baer wonders whether seasoned social media marketers' belief is simply self-justifying.
"People who have been employed in the social media business for multiple years could be convincing themselves that social media is effective, because if it wasn’t a portion of their entire identity and professional worthiness would be called into question," he says.
But Baer chooses to read the findings as proof of something else: social media marketing works when you commit to it long term, not short term.
"This data shows that time horizon is a great determinant of social media success," Baer says.
I agree with him, and would add: social media marketing is merely 2016's edition of PR; it works when you treat it like an enterprise, not an event.
What do you think?
