Most of the large marketers we survey tell us their companies are active on Twitter. But just as marketers say they’re not getting enough value from Facebook, Twitter marketers are still looking for greater value as well. In fact, our new report today reveals that only 55% of companies that market on Twitter say they’re satisfied with the business value they achieve:

Why are Twitter marketers still looking for greater value?

  1. Marketers are using Twitter for the wrong objective. Marketers’ most common objective on Twitter is to build brand awareness. But consumers are most likely to become a fan or follower of a company in social media after they’ve already bought from that company. This means that marketers would have more luck using Twitter to engage their existing customers than to find new ones.
  2. Twitter must do more to support marketers. Twitter’s marketing business is still relatively young — its ads have been generally available for only about 3 years — but that business must mature quickly. Marketers say they need more guidance, education, service, and support if they’re going to use Twitter successfully. And just 44% of marketers say they’re satisfied with Twitter as a marketing partner today.

The good news? We believe that Twitter is heading in the right direction. It carefully tests its new marketing offerings before unleashing them on the market. It has brought marketers innovative targeting criteria, like the ability to target users based on what TV show they’re watching. And if it can help marketers build genuine connections with their customers, rather than just running ads, then Twitter could become the go-to site for the kind of social marketing that marketers are hungry for — the kind of social marketing we believe Facebook has left behind.