The Big List Blog
93% of social media users believe companies should be involved in social media
This morning on GasPedal’s You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius blog, we highlighted some interesting research that we wanted to share with the Blog Council community:
A September 2008 Cone Business in Social Media study concluded that 60% of Americans use social media, and of those, nearly 60% engage with companies on social sites—one in four of which interact with companies more than once per week.
The study goes on to reveal that a whopping 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while 85% believe that a company should not only be present but also interact with consumers.
Other findings:
- 56% of social media users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment
- 43% of users believe companies should use social networks to help solve their problems
- 41% believe companies should solicit feedback on their products and services through social media
- Men are twice as likely to frequently interact with companies online than women
February 4, 2009
4 comments
This is great information. Thanks for sharing it. Even though some companies may acknowledge this trend, the interesting part will be how they execute and start interacting.
Why do 85% of social media users think businesses should have a social media presence AND interact with consumers, when only 60% of social media users actually interact with those businesses when given the opportunity?
On a different note, this posting appears to refer to the everyday consumer. What happens if we substitute “consumer” with “client” and ask if big businesses, who have far fewer clients than a Walmart or a Home Depot, and require those clients to spend far more money in regular monthly fees, should participate in social media networks. What is the answer then?
I wholeheartedly agree with this post and am glad to see statistics backing up the idea that companies should have a social media marketing plan in action for 2009.
I decided last year I would ramp up my efforts to stay in touch with my sphere of influence, prospects, clients, friends, etc, utilizing many of the social media networking sites.
Using Facebook and Twitter, the last 3 months of maintaining a presence and contributing and commenting on these social networking platforms, has now provided me with additional business and 2-3 good leads per week. A good lead for me is one that will close business with me in the next 30-60 days. And when each closing is worth $2700-$4000 on average, I believe the time I’ve spent cultivating relationships and participating on sites like Twitter and Facebook is worth it to me.
I recorded a screencast video of gaining two leads on Facebook (indirectly connected through Twitter).
I hope this inspires and motivates people to utilize Facebook and other related sites to market online.
Again, great post!
Ed
On Twitter.com
An excellent article, unfortunately there is so much institutional resistence to letting go of control of their message. Yet social media has so many rewards in establishing relationships with their customers.