The importance of social networking in marketing today is outstanding, and most marketers have already invested a lot of time and some money into their social efforts. Social marketing is constantly growing and becoming a stronger way to get the word out to the world. Companies like Facebook and Twitter have made numerous innovations in order to make their networks more suitable for marketing use. However, although social media can bring marketers a lot of reach and internet user engagement, there is another benefit to including social media in a marketing campaign that some marketers may not be aware of. It is simply proof of an evolution in online consumer behavior.
The benefit that I am referring to has recently had some light shone onto it in a study by Mass Relevance, a social curation company. It seems, according to this study, that consumers prefer to do business with those marketers or businesses that have created a presence for themselves in some way on one or more social networking sites. In fact, to prove this the study states that about 59% of consumers are more likely to put their trust in a brand that has integrated its marketing techniques into social media.
Here is what the company writes in their introduction to the study:
It’s undeniable that we are shifting into a new era of social. Social media now takes up the majority of people’s media consumption. There are so many Facebook users that if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest and Twitter would be right behind it. The number of people who follow @LadyGaga on Twitter is equal to the population of four New York Cities. “Social” is integrated into our lives.
As marketers, we find ourselves in a battle for attention…or better yet, engagement. The brands that are winning are the brands that provide participatory experiences, especially outside of social media. It’s no surprise that today’s social people are attracted to social brands.
Some of the other important bits of information that came from this study include the result stating that 60% of the people surveyed for the study responded saying that they were more likely to share a message from a brand if integration with social was present in all of their online endeavors.
Also, just about two thirds of the respondents said that in a few of their purchasing decisions, social media content played a huge role in whether they bought or not.
Here are other highlights:
- 56% said that likelihood of recommendation to friends on products from any given brand is at least somewhat dependent upon social media integration
- 75% said that they often talk about brands on social media.
- 46% said that they prefer to only do business with those brands that are on social media.
So, not only does social media allow marketers to reach consumers more easily and effectively, it also may be the deciding factor as to whether or not any business gets done. Consumers are clearly more influenced by social media integration from brands or businesses than some originally believed.
