Marketers Struggle To Keep Up With The Speed And Scale Of Social

Marketers know that social media is unlike any other marketing channel. When compared with traditional television and print, which allow for long lead times, social marketing planning and execution feels like racecar driving: fast speeds, quick turns, and lots of competition. Consider the extraordinary characteristics that make social media unique:

Prolific content creation and consumption. In late 2017, Twitter wrote that “hundreds of millions of tweets” were sent every day. 1 In its Q2 2018 earnings call, Snapchat touted more than 3 billion daily snaps created. 2 The astronomical volume, pace, and unpredictability of social content can overwhelm marketers. Brad Jakeman, president of the global beverage group at PepsiCo, told AdvertisingAge: “It was once sufficient for us to produce four pieces of content a year — mainly TV — and we could spend about six to eight months developing that one piece of content and spend $1 million on each piece of film. Now that four pieces has turned into 4,000; eight months has changed to eight days and 8 hours.” 3

Short content shelf life. Social networks publish immense content volumes via continuous news feeds, creating an ever-changing user experience. The consequences: shortened user attention spans and content that stales quickly. A debate over the color of a dress incited a Twitter frenzy, spiking mentions at 303,000 tweets per hour on the first day. By day two, #thedress usage plummeted. 4 Users expect brands in social media to keep pace. When musician Beyoncé namedropped Red Lobster in a new song, it created a surge in Red Lobster social discussion. But the restaurant chain tweeted a response 8 hours later, an unsatisfactory delay that social users vilified. 5

Impatient customers with high expectations. User expectations for brand interactions have grown on social networks. Sprout Social, a social media management solution (SMMS), found that 46% of people it surveyed have used social media to complain about a business. Lack of a brand response yielded 35% of consumers saying that they would never buy from the brand again and, worse, a bad or unhelpful brand response increased the chance of those people boycotting the brand by 43%. 6

Process Issues Plague Marketers When Tackling Social Marketing

Social marketing demands speed and timeliness, but marketers have trouble keeping up with its realtime nature. Mike Mothner, CE O of Wpromote, explains, “You can’t apply the same types of marketing workflows and approvals to social; those [traditional] workflows iterate too slowly.” While misaligned strategy, resourcing, and organization contribute to marketers’ troubles, process problems are core to the issue. These problems include:

› Too many approvals. Companies, particularly regulated ones, often insert multiple approvers to minimize risk. However, this hierarchy creates bottlenecks, delays content creation, and causes missed opportunities. Social media allows a slim window to join a conversation before content becomes stale. Thanks to Wendy’s streamlined process, flat marketing structure, and empowered