prabhuResearch from The Social Element states that 30% of brand leaders say they have too many social channels to manage, with many feeling they’ve lost control of their social media.
The study, which investigated industry attitudes towards social media amongst global businesses, surveyed 60 people working as Global VP’s, Campaign Managers, HO Digital, HO Social, Social Media and Marketing Manager positions.
Many global brand leaders feel overwhelmed by managing their social media. When asked to score how in control they felt, on average, they scored it 6.5 out of 10.
Tamara Littleton, Founder and CEO of The Social Element, commented: “For many global brands, social media has evolved at such a pace that they don’t know how many accounts they have or what their purpose is, whether accounts are dormant or in use, who’s posting on behalf of the company or what they’re saying.
“That’s without the added complexity of ensuring their messaging is working effectively across different cultures, languages and regions. It’s no wonder that beginning the process of disentanglement can feel so overwhelming.”
When asked about their biggest challenges in this area, over half (55%) of leaders cite a lack of resource compared to the size of the challenge as their biggest concern.
A third (33%) are perplexed about controlling and engaging with consumer content and three out of ten (29%) say they have too many channels to manage.
A fifth of brand leaders feel unprepared in the event of a crisis and worry about having a lack of consistent content across markets (22%).
Other challenges cited were management buy-in (18%) and the issues posed by ensuring languages (13%) and multi-cultural differences (11%) are localised.
The Social Element founder added: “Establishing a global social media strategy that has a clear framework and ownership, while providing enough flexibility to meet the needs of each country, is challenging. But the opportunity for brands that do it well is to connect with their audiences at an intimate level that fosters true engagement and human connections.”
