We can talk all we want about getting businesses involved in social media for “warm-and-fuzzy” reasons like “building relationships” and “connecting with customers.”
But in order for social media to be a worthwhile marketing investment, we need to show how building these relationships will translate into increased sales. After all, even if you don’t have to pay to use most social media tools, they still require a significant investment of your time-and time is money, too.
Fortunately, studies published this month have shed light on the way that social media influences purchasing behavior-and the results are promising!
For example, a study published early this month by InSites Consulting showed that brands can influence consumer purchasing behavior both directly (through their own posts) and indirectly (through word-of-mouth from other customers.) Here’s how MarketingProfs summed up the results:
Consumer-based word-of-mouth (WOM) information is viewed as the most reliable source of information about brands on social networking sites: 38% of social networking users say posts from other consumers are most credible, followed by posts from brands themselves (32%). )
Likewise, a study performed by Psychster for AllRecipes.com found that creating corporate profiles on sites like Facebook can boost purchase intent, especially when the profiles are interactive and allow users to “Become a Fan” and put the brand’s logo on their homepage. It also boosts the chance that they will recommend your brand to others.
So, creating a company profile and allowing people to become fans of the brand provides a double word-of-mouth benefit-not only does your company’s logo show up on your fans’ homepages, but they are also more likely to actively recommend you to their friends and family.
A study by Morpace shows the power that referrals on social networking sites can have: Over 2/3 of US Facebook users interviewed said they would be more likely to buy a product or service if it were recommended by one of their Facebook friends (via E-Marketer).
Offering coupons and discounts is a powerful way to entice consumers to interact with your brand on social networking sites and generate those positive referrals. For example, the Morpace study also showed that respondents were more likely to “fan” a brand that offered them coupons and discounts for doing so.
Finally, a study by HubSpot found that small businesses using Twitter saw a boost in lead generation. Small businesses who had between 100 and 500 followers on Twitter got 146% more leads each month than businesses with 21-100 followers. (via e-Marketer).
These studies show how important it is becoming to engage your customers via social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and to provide them with incentives, like coupons and promotions, for talking about and recommending your brand.
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Social Media and Marketing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
