Tac
I tend to agree with you.
Somewhere I read that salaries for social media are replacing media buy (to some extent of course given the huge media buy budget of the average brand). It makes sense as people are spending more of their time in social media. Budgets follow.
Probably enterprises will want to keep their marketing headcount stable (I’ve never seen those grow much, especially in tough time like what we experience nowadays).
So yes, I see agencies getting the big chunk of it.
2 Challenges I see:
1) Social media (engagement) is a natural fit for enterprises to go direct: If you’re a customer or an industry specialist, you want to talk to the people who make the strategy or the product. You may not like the idea of a proxy who isn’t a company employee.
2) Social media isn’t a campaign. It’s about networks, relationships, conversations thus it realizes its full potential in the long run. The high turn over in agencies, the nature of the campaign base business will have to adapt.
There are solutions to those challenges but it will require a change on the part of agencies.
Laurent

I think you’re right. What

I think you are spot on. As a social media person within an economic development entity I have unique perspective on this topic. The most common mistakes I see with social media is that companies don’t give it enough attention and therefore dump it on an intern or someone straight out of college. Those individuals may understand the tools, but not the strategy. Conversely managers who are using social media get the strategy, but don’t understand the tools.

As with any bad financial times, companies look to outsource services until they are positive they need a longer term commitment (and the benefits package that goes along with it). The problem that comes in with any outsourced services is that they are likely not just offering services to your company, but many others. Therefore, you may not be their priority, and they may not understand your brand. This becomes very apparent in social media which requires a full understanding of a product or company and constant monitoring/attention. That’s why for ongoing social media use I think an internal person is essential. For a short term campaign or giveaway, I think outsourcing is fine.

Social media is hot right now and everyone wants a piece of the pie, so I agree that job growth will occur within this sector. As someone who recently left the unemployment ranks I can tell you that almost ALL the jobs I interviewed for in pr/marketing had social media expertise as a requirement. I don’t think this is going to change anytime soon.

Perfect post..
Thank you for the post..Locksmith in Bronx NY

Social Media will continue to play a huge roll, and I don’t see it being affected much. I do believe however, that if you are going to undertake social media, which everyone looking to create online presence should do, that you do it fully or not at all. It is a huge commitment that will produce results, if done right. I also don’t see that there is any value in outsourcing it, because no one knows your business like you do, no one can produce the results that you can when you are heavily invested in your company.

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Hi tac, Interesting topic but i feel social media marketing will live on forever now. I know the reccesion is going to carry on for what looks like a long time but the likes of facebook and twitter will still hold the power even after the reccesion is over. Especially if what people are saying about googles panda update is true that links from these sites will carry more weight with google then they will only grow in popularity for business’s no matter what the economic climate is like.

Social media is too big to fail. I think social media will be with us for the rest of our lives and will grow and grow. I dont think the reccesion will effect them too much, but hey i could be wrong.

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Great points Jamie and I don’t necessarily disagree. I think you’re pointing out what many companies will do, because as you point out, it’s what they do today. I think I’m a little more optimistic and speaking to the opportunity the shift provides.