Last week, I gave you 32 Marketing Stats You Need to Know. Since online marketing is more than just web, mobile, and search, here are 13 Social Media Stats You Need to Know.
Reviews Influence Purchase Decisions
- 90% of consumers say positive online reviews influenced buying decisions
- 86% said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews
Dimensional Research “Customer Service and Business Results: A Survey of Customer Service from Mid-Size Companies” April 2013
Social Media Drives Increased Sharing of Customer Service Experiences
- 45% share bad customer service experiences via social media
- 30% share good customer service experiences
- 58% are more likely to share their customer services experience stories now than they were five years ago
Dimensional Research “Customer Service and Business Results: A Survey of Customer Service from Mid-Size Companies” April 2013
How SMBs Feel About Social Media
According to an October 2012 marketing survey by Vertical Response, small business owners definitely think they need to be on social media and are pouring more time and money into it:
- 2/3 use Facebook; ½ use Twitter
- Nearly half spend over 6 hours a week at it
- 1/4 spend 6 to 10 hours
Many are buckling under the added social media marketing workload:
- 1/3 said they’d like to spend less time on it and say finding good content to share was the biggest time commitment
- Nearly four times the number of small businesses are increasing their social media budget versus those that are decreasing.
How Consumers Feel About Social Media
- 69 percent of consumers are more likely to use a local business if it has information available on a social media site (2010 Local Search Usage Study)
- 81% of consumers who use social media expect businesses to respond on social sites (Local Search Usage Study: Bridging The Caps, From Search to Sales, comScore and TMP Directional Marketing)
What’s the ROI of Social Media?
- Companies with the highest levels of social activity grew their sales on average of 18% per year
- Companies with the least amount of social activity saw their sales decline 6% per year.
Wet Paint/Altimer Group Study, 2009
The Problem with Statistics
Statistics are dangerous if you don’t know how to properly utilize them in a sales call. They are not the silver bullet to close a sale. But they can be useful to help demonstrate how consumers interact with local businesses on social media so your prospect understands how it will put more money in his pocket.
If you can’t prove that, then all the stats in the world won’t help.
John TabitaFormer owner and partner of web firm Jenesis Technologies, John is currently Director of Digital Strategy at Haines Local Search, a company providing local search marketing solutions to SMBs, including print and Internet Yellow Pages, web design, and local SEO. When not working or spending time with his family, John offers great sales and marketing advice on his blog, Small Business Marketing Sucks. When not working or spending time with his family, John offers great sales and marketing advice on his blog, Small Business Marketing Sucks.
