- 56% of shoppers to top e-retail websites who interact with social media websites have elected to ?friend? or ?follow? or ‘subscribe? to a retailer on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This is an amazing testament to customer loyalty and interest in social engagement. Shoppers are actually choosing to engage in relationships with retailers on social sites.
- Facebook is, by far, the best place to reach shoppers. More than half of everyone who shops online uses Facebook, and of those online shoppers who engage in social media, more than 80% use Facebook. However, an unofficial look at the Facebook pages of the Top 100 online retailers reveals that one-quarter do not have any formal Facebook presence. In other words, half of the top online retailers have a minimal to nonexistent Facebook presence.
- Customers mainly interact with retailers on social media sites in order to learn about products and promotions?only 5% use social media primarily for customer support?a marketer’s dream come true. Consumers want companies? information, sales and specials; retailers just have to learn how to give it to them effectively.
I disagree that “Facebook is, by far, the best place to reach shoppers.” I think this could have been better written, “Facebook is, by far, the leader in influenced social networking and the largest social network to date. As a result, retail sales based on influence do well there.” With 175 million active users, no doubt that Facebook has a large percentage of shoppers. That’s like saying, “People who drive cars are highly likely to purchase gas each month.” 🙂
In my opinion, the best way to reach shoppers is, hands down, search engines at the moment. I don’t go to Facebook to research my next purpose and my intent is never to purchase on Facebook. However, when my intent is to purchase – I often hit the search engines.
That said, I’m not discounting the opportunity for businesses to connect with consumers on Facebook. On the contrary, this Media Report proves that consumers want to connect with retailers via social media.
- 61% of respondents said that they interact with 1 to 5 brands via social media.
- 21% of respondents said they interact with 6 to 10 brands via social media.
- 10% of respondents said they interact with 11 to 20 brands via social media.
- 8% of respondents said they interact with more than 20 brands via social media.
I’ve said before that social media is an amplifier for businesses online. Facebook is a big amplifier! The interconnectivity of it’s members and the ability to share purchase decisions, is, of course a great opportunity. Especially if you have a process in place to connect and make offerings to those members.
