Food and Beverage Industry Failing to Grasp Social Media Potential

BROMSGROVE, England, August 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Over half of executives in the food and drink industries do not measure the return on investment (ROI) they get from their use of social media, according to a just-food and just-drinks survey.

More than 54% of industry professionals said they did not monitor the ROI that their companies make on social media networks. A further 18% "did not know" if the business in which they worked measured the returns.

These results are some of the more notable from a survey of over 500 food and drink executives that just-food and just-drinks conducted as part of a larger report into how companies in the industries used social media in their marketing strategies. The report can be obtained for free when you join either just-drinks or just-food this month.

When asked by just-food what the "top three barriers to implementing a social media strategy were," a number of respondents said it was difficult to measure the ROI.

"Showing the ROI of a Facebook fan or a Twitter follower," was one barrier put forward.

However, some 52% of those surveyed said their companies now had a formal social media strategy. That said, a quarter of executives said their companies had not devoted a part of their marketing budget to social media.

Nonetheless, over two-thirds of respondents said social media would be included in their companies' next marketing budgets.

Social media is playing an increasing role in the marketing strategies of food and drinks manufacturers around the world, the report found.

Chris Brook-Carter, the Publisher of just-food and just-drinks, said: "Globally, social media is increasingly being utilised by the business world as a marketing tool for connecting with customers. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have rapidly grown in popularity over the last decade, thereby creating online communities made up of people with shared interests and activities. This trend has been accelerated by technological developments such as the rapid expansion of internet access and multimedia-enabled smartphones."

He went on: "This new report from just-drinks gives you a complete analysis of how social media is being used within the global food and drinks industries."

The report includes a profile of the global social media landscape, an analysis of how leading food and drink companies are using social media to influence business and engage customers, case studies illustrating major social media industry initiatives and a discussion of likely future strategies for social media.

For a free copy of this report, join just-food by going to this page:http://www.just-food.com/mo/index.aspx?ol=socialmediareport. Or to join just-drinks go here:http://www.just-drinks.com/mo/index.aspx?ol=socialmediareport

By becoming a member of just-food or just-drinks, you'll join an elite group of food and beverage industry executives who are never short of the critical global information, insight and analysis they need to make informed business decisions.

About just-drinks and just-food

Since 1999, http://www.just-drinks.com and http://www.just-food.com have been the leading and most respected industry websites globally. The unique news, analysis, comment and research content is produced and sourced via a dedicated editorial team, worldwide network of correspondents and content partnerships. In addition, there are over 4,000 market research reports available in the research stores.