Report: Consumers want to be entertained on social media

How invested is your organization in social media strategy?

Most communicators interact on social media as part of their ongoing PR and marketing efforts, but a new study from Sprout Social suggests most organizations have room to grow. The study asked 1,000 social media marketers about their current campaigns and goals and then asked 1,000 consumers whether brand managers were satisfying their desires.

The big takeaway: Most marketers still struggle to demonstrate the value of social media to their organization despite a profound belief that what they do matters to the bottom line.

How to define success

What is the role of social media marketing in 2019?

Most marketers say brand awareness remains the top goal for their social media outreach efforts. Other goals include lead generation and increasing community engagement to grow an audience. However, these same marketers are using metrics that don’t prioritize brand reach. Only 41% use metrics such as reach and impressions to measure success.

Going viral still seems the favored way to score a big social media success. Brand managers prioritize “likes” and comments, shares and retweets, and interaction with customers.