Mike Andrew Consulting

13 Social Stats to Take to Heart in 2013

By mike, Dec 20 in blog with 0 comments

The New Year is almost upon us and with it brings time for word of mouth practitioners to reflect on what new opportunities lie ahead. The world of digital and social has arguably opened more doors for marketers and communicators than any other media in recent history. This Thursday we’ll be joining WOMMA for a Twitter#WOMMAchat talking about 2012 trends, favorite moments and “must-know” statsto keep top of mind going into the new year.

We hope you’ll join us at 11am CST for a lively discussion, but in the meantime, there are some key stats and trends worth reading that speak to or highlight strategic opportunities for social brands. They range from consumer preferences to brand activity, but each illuminate different proof points on the power of social. And their implications can help anyone looking to wrap up 2013 strategic planning.

The rise of social as an interactive avenue between brands and consumers.
Social customers are active and increasingly willing and ready to socially interact with brands. From Likes and Retweets to Shares and Clicks to websites, brands are finding social customers can be highly engaged when brand activity resonates with them. Because of this, brands are expanding internal resources to better interact.

1. By EOY more than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies will “actively engage” customers with Facebook marketing – up 20 percent from 4th Q 2011 (Source: Gartner).

2. Brands are receiving 1,985,000 interactions across all social channels each quarter (Source: Spredfast Social Engagement Index Report)

3. On average, brands are engaging at least 29 employees internally to activate their social presence(s) (Source: Spredfast Social Engagement Index Report).

4. 17 percent of customers have used social in past year to get customer service response (American Express 2012 customer barometer).

5. Page views in social are 94 percent higher when they contain an image or visual element (Source: Brafton).

Social has the ability to convert.
Brands are increasingly viewing social as not only an avenue for marketing and word of mouth, but more data is showing that social can and does increase Sales.

6. 34 percent of marketers have generated leads using Twitter (source: Digital Buzz Blog)

7. Pinterest referrals spend 70 percent more money than visitors referred from non-social channels (source: Search Engine Journal).

8. LinkedIn was found to be 277 percent more effective at lead generation than any other social network (Source: Hubspot).

Social = Word of Mouth.
Organic sharing, recommendations, and user activity is spurring natural word of mouth for brands across social networks.

9. 69 percent of follows on Twitter are suggested by friends (source: Web Analytics World).

10. During SXSW this year, the brands sponsoring the event potentially reached 33,154,224 people via Twitter. (Source:MediaPost & Adrants)

Embracing preferences of social consumers.
Data around social users is helping brands to learn and validate the hyper-active nature of their target audiences across social channels.

11. 23 percent of Facebook’s users check their account 5 or more times daily (source: Socialnomics).

12. 80 percent of social media users prefer to connect with brands through Facebook (source:Business2Community).

13. 38 percent of consumers report that discounts and money saving vouchers are most important to them when following a brand in social, with information about new Products and Sales being a close second at 36% (Pitney Bowes study).

Story by Jordan Viator, Story source: www.socialmediatoday.com

About the author

Mike Andrew has been working with the Internet and small business for over 12 years. Mike has been a keynote speaker at conventions and seminars and conducted social media training sessions all over the world. Mike has an extensive media background having worked in electronic media for over 30 years. Mike specialises in social media and Internet marketing strategy, SEO techniques and search engine marketing campaigns. His articles appear on numerous blogs around the web as well as national magazines.