Marketing execs uninterested in social networks

More than half of top chief marketing officers are indifferent about social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, despite their huge popularity.

According to a survey by Epilson, 55 per cent of marketing executive at leading brands are either not too interested (22 per cent) or not interested at all (33 per cent) in using social networks as part of their marketing strategies.

Just ten per cent of chief marketing officers said they are already using these social networking websites as part of their marketing plans.

However, 52 per cent of respondents said they do use internet forums and webinars, 47 per cent use email and 37 per cent use blogs.

Some 27 per cent said word of mouth and social networks are the tools they would most like to incorporate into their marketing mix.

Steve Cone, chief marketing officer at Epsilon, said: “These sites narrowly appeal to college and high school students, providing a challenge as far as measuring results and yielding a limited amount of actionable data.”