SmallBusinessNewz

It’s great that so many marketers are embracing social media, but instant results aren’t on the cards and commitment is key. The length of time a business has been using social media, along with the number of hours given over to its implementation and management, could directly affect the end results, according to a new report from Whitepapersource.com’s founder, Michael Stelzner.

One of the aspects of social media marketing that Stelzner researched was the amount of time marketers committed to working with social media. What he found was that those just starting their foray into the medium committed less time than those who had been long-term users for a year or so.

For example, the data shows that newbies committed around 2 hours per week, those who had been involved with social media for a few months invested 10 hours a week and old-hands spent 20 or more hours per week.

"Social media marketing is an engagement with online communities to generate exposure, opportunity and sales," said Stelzner, "and the real shocker is that experienced folks are investing more than 20 hours each week with social media."

That data suggests either that after implementation, social media was found to be effective and worthy of more time allocation, or that those new entrants simply underestimated the man hours needed to maintain a successful social media presence when they first started out.

According to the comprehensive Social Media Marketing Industry Report , “A significant 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly. It is interesting to note that 9.6% spend more than 20 hours each week with social media”. Couple that with the fact that almost three-quarters (72%) of Stelzner’s 900 respondents had only been using social media for a few months or less, and it does seem to fit that experience with the medium leads to greater time allocation.

Hopefully, those venturing into the world of tweets, blogging, social networking and podcasting, along with the multitude of other social media opportunities out there, will take away from this report the lesson that, while social media is seen as a cost-effective marketing tool, the real investment lies in the time committed to making it a success.

Stelzner’s free-to-download report is jam-packed with facts and figures relating to the current state of the social media industry and answers the top ten questions on every social media marketer’s, or wannabe’s, lips.