Marketers using social media have a direct line of communication to their customers. Sadly, however, according to a recent study the vast majority of them aren’t taking advantage. The study from Spout Social looks at how many people are commenting on business social media pages, and how many of them are ignored by the brand itself.
The study found that retailers typically respond to less than 20% of posts or comments on their social media page. This is a major problem since more and more people are using social media as part of their product research steps before making a purchase.
Customers may visit a social media page of a brand to learn about product inventory, sales information or any number of other things. When their comments or questions are ignored, they very well may move on to another brand.
The average retailer will, according to the study, get over 1500 messages on Facebook and Twitter this holiday season. Of course, the larger the company’s social media presence the more people will likely be commenting. This is obviously an area with significant opportunity, if the brands and marketers are handling it properly.
Even for those comments that do get a response, it is likely to late. The average response time for retailers on these social media platforms is around 12 hours. Most people look for instant or near instant responses from the Internet, and social media is no exception.
To learn more about this and other items in the report you can download it for free HERE.