After seeing a nice little infographic I thought I would post on our blog about how Social Media and how companies may not see the Return on Investment to be that vast from it. It is very important from an avid Social Media user for feedback directly from a company when I need something answered.

To put it in perspective the study done for the infographic said that there are 2 Billion people online, 85% of those customers expect businesses to be active in social media. Why, do you ask? Well like it or not most of your customers daily lives are spent on Social Media websites on the computer or mobile device. Word of mouth is a company’s strongest form of advertising; now with all of the Social Media portals you could say it is “word of mouse”.

Now that you are thinking about embracing Social Media, show that you’re human. 80% of businesses are NOT passionate about their Social Media image. The more people feel that they know you and like you, the more you will succeed. You do not want to be a robot all the time on your Social Media accounts, this will drive people away and show that you are not interested in what their opinions are and what they have to say. You must show how much you love your business and your customers for them to pay attention to your Social Media accounts. The study also showed that 68% of email subscribers & Twitter followers are likely to buy. 51% Facebook fans are likely to buy. With that type of information, wouldn’t you want to engage and encourage the purchase of your products to your Social Media followers? That just seems like too good of a statistic to just overlook.

Return on Investment (ROI) is a big concern for most companies, especially for small businesses. For small businesses or startups this is where you need to pay attention. Look at Social Media as another way of chatting with customers, answering the phone and meeting customers who would come into your store. Can you really afford not to communicate with your customers?

Another big thing is Blogging. Most of you are probably wondering why I’m talking about something that has been around forever. This is very key point, according to the study, 55% more web visitors and 67% more leads for businesses that blog. This is very transparent look into your company and what a typical day is like at your business. I myself have found this very stimulating to read about what others are doing at their job. You seem to get a sense of feel of how much love and care they are putting into their business. Also look at it from a standpoint of this is giving your potential customer to learn more about you and the company without a PR Release or News item. They now have an actual human voice that is representing your company.

Here are some great Statistics from the Study that everyone should pay attention to and the questions that follow the statistics:

  • Las Vegas Social Media Marketing30% of customer questions & compliments get no reply
    Would you NOT answer the phone 30% of the time?
  • 77% of customers read brand posts, but don’t comment.
    17% comment & share experiences.
    13% post about your brand.
    Do you inspire interactive or just push sales?
  • 71% of complaints on Twitter are NOT responded to.
    Negative reviews don’t kill brands. Not replying or inappropriate responses can.
    Do you use social media to convert angry complaints into happy customers?
    Of the 29% that were contacted, 83% liked they got a response & were satisfied with it.

Now that we have gone over some basics about running your Social Media campaign and gave you some statistics to back it up, you should be out there making a plan to build your social media portfolio. Don’t just tweet, post and blog because everyone else is doing it, invest the time and love into it to make it grow. And one thing you must not do is count likes and followers. The only number you should be really concerned about is the amount of interactions that you have with your customers. That is the most important statistic around.