The most popular tactics used to market to local audiences were websites with local content (69%), print ads (62%) and event promotion (59%). Less than half of respondents used social media fan pages for this purpose, and less than one in three used paid social media advertising. Websites with local content were considered the most effective tactic, named by 30% of brand marketers, compared with just 10% who thought fan pages were best.
The top obstacle to using social media to reach local markets was a familiar one: measuring success. But other, more mundane concerns also caused trouble. Brand marketers said it was difficult to manage information, engage users, identify influencers and keep fresh local and regional content available.
Marketers do believe the global potential is there for social media, with nearly three-quarters saying the channel would be a good way to reach existing and potential customers in local marketers-but they must learn to leverage it first.
(emarketer.com, August 2010)
