Social Media Marketing: Time Trap or Opportunity Magnet?

LM Comment: Beware, this white paper is a marketing flyer for the associated conference. With that said, it contains some useful information.

March 24, 2009: summarized from PRWEB -- A surprising 64 percent of marketers are spending five or more hours weekly using social media sites like Twitter, found the just-released Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses.

"Social media marketing is an engagement with online communities to generate exposure, opportunity and sales," says report author Michael A. Stelzner, founder of WhitePaperSource, "and the real shocker is that experienced folks are investing more than 20 hours each week with social media."

Businesses of all sizes are leaping into the social media pool--and many are well-known brands. Computer giant Dell recently reported a million dollars in sales by issuing coupons on Twitter. Even Ford is using social media to interact directly with its customers.

However, for most marketing pros, social media marketing is a fresh new phenomenon--and it's not just for the young professional. Among the 880 marketers surveyed, 72 percent have been at it for only a few months, and the median age was 40 to 49. "This is a story nobody else is telling," explains Stelzner. "Most marketers know the future is social media, but they aren't sure how their competitors are playing the game."

The leading benefits experienced by social media marketers included:

#1: Generated exposure for the business (81%)
#2: Increased traffic and subscribers (61%)
#3: Established new business partnerships (56%)

Full story at: http://tinyurl.com/ccbzbe

Download whitepaper from: http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/