A New Study on Consumer Interaction with Companies via Social Media

Some new findings on consumer social media interactions from a study conducted by Cone Business which revealed, almost 60% of Americans interact with companies on a social media Web site, and one in four interact more than once per week. The survey finds that 93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while 85% believe a company should not only be present, but should also interact with its consumers via social media.

56% of American consumers feel both a stronger connection with, and better served by, companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

When Americans were asked about specific types of interactions:

• 43% say that companies should use social networks to solve my problems
• 41% want companies to solicit feedback on their products and services
• 37%feel that companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand
• 33% of men and 17% of women interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media

33% of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (ages 18-34), believe companies should actively market to them via social networks, and the same is true of the wealthiest households (household income of $75,000+). Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households (3 or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.

And eMarketer reports that Generation Y (those born after 1979) online buyers are more immersed in online and mobile activities than any other generation, according to 2008 research from shopping comparison site PriceGrabber. Some 85% of Gen Y respondents said they participated in social networking, and 57% reported involvement with blogs.

Data from an August 2008 survey of Web merchants, sponsored by Internet Retailer, found that, of the 39.3% of retail respondents that use social networks, 32% have a page on Facebook, 27% on MySpace and 26% on YouTube.

I think data like this certainly affirm what we here at Visible Technologies are seeing with brands in the marketplace. Consumers absolutely view social media as channel for interaction and brands need to be actively present and interacting with consumers. If they don’t their competitor will. The challenge for brands is how to orchestrated this with hundreds or perhaps thousands of consumers interactions on a daily or monthly basis. The social media interaction channel/opportunity traverses many of the existing support and customer interaction channels in place at enterprises. Organizations need to rapidly put in place coordinated listening, measurement, engagement, and integration programs to both actively support customer issues and promote word-of-mouth opportunities.

To hear some insightful thoughts and best practices from leading analysts and brands: Jeff Zabin, from Aberdeen Group; Peter Kim, formerly of Forrester; Bob Pearson, from Dell; as well as Marty Collins, from Microsoft that are harnessing this channel have a listen to either of these webcasts - 1 and 2. Enjoy!

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies