Get your Sharpies ready: June 30, 2011, is worldwide social media day. Are you planning to participate?
Social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, are a growing part of today's marketing strategy for businesses big and small. Think about how many of your friends or preferred businesses participate in social media and then think harder about the level of importance and influence that it has on our lives.
According to respondents in a Performics social media survey, in one year the importance of LinkedIn increased from 41 percent to 59 percent, while Twitter jumped from 40 percent to 58 percent and Facebook dropped from 56 percent to 53 percent.
What is the importance of social media you ask? Social media can help you garner customers outside of your community, region, or even country.
Today, more global firms, a whopping 47 percent, are turning to social media to find new business – up seven percent from last year. In the U.S. over the past year, 11 percent of companies that utilized social media networks to acquire customers experienced an increase in revenue compared to those that opted out of social media. This trend insinuates that the momentum driving the shift is not going away any time soon.
An interesting fact to note, and to consider when reflecting on your company, is how U.S. firms are using social media. To date, only 40 percent measure their social media Return on Investment (ROI) quarterly or annually, while 31 percent measure their efforts on an ad hoc basis, if at all. On average, more than 80 percent of companies use social media, but less than half actually measure the ROI of their efforts.
What does this mean for your company and bottom line?
Are you still on the fence about whether or not to dive into the social media pool?
Consider this: 38 million people say that social media influences their purchasing decisions. Also consider that this year 34 percent of companies have a devoted marketing budget set aside for social media. Last year, this number was 27 percent.
Consumers are more likely to discuss a company and its products on Twitter than Facebook and more likely to buy the Twitter-discussed product than Facebook product. In addition, people want to buy things that their friends recommend. An impressive 60 percent of Facebook fans and 79 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend a certain brand to their friends after becoming a Facebook fan or Twitter follower. In addition, 51 percent of fans and 67 percent of followers are more likely to buy the brands that they follow or like.
Teens and adult social media users reported high levels of influence in 2011 compared to 2010:
- 23.1 million discovered new brands or products through social media (up 22 percent from 2010)
- 22.5 million used social media to learn about unfamiliar brands or products (up 9 percent)
- 17.8 million were strongly influenced in their purchase decisions by opinions in social media (up 19 percent)
- 15.1 million referred to social media before making purchase decisions (up 29 percent)
Does your company engage – I don't mean check once in a while, I mean actively engage – in social media? Or are you guilty of falling into the implementation gap of these strategies and tools?
If you actively engage in social media, your company will win new business and new customers who through word of mouth will bring you more new business.
Do you think that it's time for your company to set aside some of your marketing budget for social media efforts? I do. Let us know when you want to start #winning.