New Study: Consumers Expect Brands to Engage with Them in Social Media

Well, is that really anything new? Haven’t consumers always expected attention and respect when they walked into a retail store or when they called a companies contact center? The rising chorus of social network users (4 out 5 US adults online interacted with a social site in ‘09 - Forrester) continue to up the expectation for brands and companies with respect to presence and interaction online. The 24 X 7 consumer and social technologies have enabled new-media users with an ongoing interaction cycle that necessitates attention from brands.

A new study that was just release from Cone reports that among new-media users, a staggering 78% of them interact with companies or brands via new media sites and tools — up from 59% the year before. And that these users are conversing with brands more often: 37% say they interact at least once a week — which is up from one in four when Cone did the study last year.

At this point it is simply not enough to just have a social media presence (although 95% of users expect it.) Increasingly, consumers are looking for companies and brands that have Web sites (58%) and email (45%) which I find extremely low percentages by the way. But, to also have involvement in social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace (30%) and online games (24%). Additionally, despite the annoyance of pop-ups and other intrusive ad methods 43% say they want to see companies advertise online up from 25% last year.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of Cone’s data, however, is that consumers strongly believe that social media is a two-way street, with 62% saying that they can influence business decisions by voicing their opinions through social channels. Additionally, about 25% have contributed their point of view on an issue or contacted a company directly (23%), and most want the conversation to be two-way — 74% expect companies to join conversations about their companies and brands.

Some of the data is inline with other studies I have seen and some of it seems a little be low. Will cross reference with earlier posts and provide updates with how this compares.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies