The 2013 CMO Guide To The Social Media Landscape

It’s out, the 2013 CMO guide to the social media landscape. What surprised me in this year’s edition? Less is more and some strange assumptions.

I very much liked the 2012 CMO Guide.

The 2012 edition facilitated sane conversations about brand and business objectives in social media. And contributed to creating smarter social media marketing strategies.

Before especially media agencies, including many of their clients, were chasing social channels like race dogs on steroids. Mostly only based on the reach of the channels, or based on buying links, likes and loves.

So what can we expect from CMO.com in 2013?
The 2013 version, will probably have 10, 15, 20, or more entries? Not exactly.

In fact, CMO.com has taken a less-is-more approach by focusing on the 6 key social sites that are of real use to CMOs and their digital marketing plans.

Here is the new chart, click it to enlarge it:

Again this year, there is an interactive version.

Why only 6 social sites?
This is what the CMO council explains:

This year we give you the good, the bad, and the ugly about Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

We decided to focus on these 6 because, based on digital marketers’ adoption, this is where the action is.

That’s not to say marketers shouldn’t look beyond these channels, and we are in no way anointing them winners.

We just wanted to give information-starved CMOs some insight into what we think are the places to be in 2013 to make the most of already stretched marketing dollars.

My Opinion?
I have been waiting for the 2013 version for a while. And like I started, I loved the 2011 and 2012 versions.

This year’s edition is a true disappointment to me. Why?

The interactive version looks smooth, with an almost Apple-alike clean design. Maybe strange, with a sponsor like Adobe?

On the explanation? Thin, very thin. Following the “marketing” dollars is an advertising approach you might expect from media agencies.

How do I know? I was the first global chief social officer within WPP, so let’s say I have met “a couple of” CMOs from leading global brands.

So maybe CMO.com should call next year’s edition: The 2014 Media Manager’s guide to the social media landscape?

I expect marketers, especially at C-level, to think and act beyond reach and ad dollars. Advertising is not marketing; it’s a part of marketing.

Pinterest is left out. Even if it is very relevant for several large brands with a young target audience.

Foursquare? I get it; low reach free mobile App, right? Or the future location layer of the whole internet?

Mobile is left out. But mobile is the next gateway to content, communities, friends, brands and commerce.

Blogs are left out. They are crucial to so many brands.

Blogs even outrank social networks for consumer influence, a very fresh study from Technorati shows us.

But hey, why not ignore actionable consumer insights for just one more year, right?

So maybe we should go to a less-is-more strategy here at ViralBlog, and delete 60% of our stories? Since they seem totally irrelevant to CMOs.

The contradiction in your story my dear CMO Council? If less-is-more, why would you focus on the 6 largest social networks and look at the largest flow of ad dollars?

Not a true less-is-more strategy, right?

Maybe the highest possible ROI on media investments is achieved by using the smartest possible mix of POE?

All based on a big-data dashboard that will fuel both adaptive planning and predictive marketing.

Like advertising, media is just another part of marketing. Let’s assume C-marketing level is more than that.

I hope you will get inspired by this video, from the Power of Habit:

What About You?
How about the 2012 guide compared to the 2013 one? Any message for CMO.com regarding their 2013 output and explanation? I’d love to read your feedback in the comments below.

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About the Author
Igor Beuker was CMO at 3 listed companies, chairman at the IAB, jury member at Webby, AMMA and Esprix awards, founder of 3 digital agencies (sold to WPP) and global chief social officer at Mindshare. Now he is ‘freejack’ consultant and a sought after keynote speaker.