Austin, Texas – January 28, 2010 – A recent survey from The Sage Closer, an Austin based VAR channel marketing and PR advisory firm, points to a surprising perception gap of social media marketing among global business software VARs which could lead to a drastic decline in social media usage.
“The explosive growth in popularity of social networking websites in 2009 was perhaps only matched by the explosion of media coverage,” observes Dave Manzer, founder and managing principal at The Sage Closer. “Despite recent gains in social media marketing for B2B interactions, we were stunned to see that marketing plans of VARs around the world may contribute to an eventual decline in its usage.”
The social media survey, which comprised over 130 small and mid-sized business software VARs from North America and Asia, targeted companies with annual software and services sales between one and ten million dollars. Questions addressed the degree to which VARs are aware of various social media platforms as well as how they anticipate using social media in support of their business efforts.
In analyzing the responses, Manzer noted a significant disconnect between what VARs expect to gain from using social media in 2010 versus the amount of resources budgeted for social media marketing. “What surprised me most was the misperception of high returns for very little anticipated investments,” notes Manzer. “Implementing a social media marketing campaign takes a highly coordinated approach involving multiple social media platforms, all of which adds up to a lot of staff time.”
According to Tommy Landry, author and founder of Return on Now, a social media marketing advisory firm based in Austin, successful social media marketing campaigns require an advanced knowledge of how to find and target customers and prospects on social networks. “The ease of use of many social networking sites can be deceptive,” Landry says. “Many companies begin using social media with no particular plan, outlandish expectations, and no clue as to the true cost of social media marketing. It’s critical that businesses of all sizes approach social media like any other marketing campaign and be realistic about investment plans for these campaigns.”
Manzer predicts that many VARs will experience a high degree of frustration when implementing social media campaigns that fail to deliver a sufficient quantity of sales leads. “So much euphoria surrounds the use of social media for business development that there’s bound to be a boomerang effect, especially given the assumptions of minimal cost per campaign built into many VAR budgets,” notes Manzer. “I fully expect to see as many as 50-60% of software VARs scale back their use of social media in late 2010, with many even abandoning some social networking websites. If this occurs with VARs, there may be a similar tipping point in other B2B markets as well. We could be looking at a future correction in the perceived value of some social networking websites as a valuable source of B2B sales leads.”
The Sage Closer
The Sage Closer is a marketing and public relations advisory firm that helps business software VARs worldwide build brand equity, increase website traffic and grow software and services revenue. For more information on how The Sage Closer can create a survey to turn your company into a thought leader in your industry, visit our website at http://www.thesagecloser.com/customsurvey.htm.
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