Social media has become a staple of digital marketing over the last decade, with more and more businesses including it in their strategies and the COVID pandemic giving companies a big push to focus on social media.
But still, there are a lot of small businesses that are either reluctant to use social media for their marketing or they’ve tried it before and not seen the results they wanted.
There’s no denying, though, social media is a powerful tool that, once harnessed, can make a massive difference to your revenue and business growth.
Still not sure? In this blog post, I’ve highlighted 10 Statistics That Prove the Importance of Social Media Marketing and how you can make it work for your business!
1. 54% of web users use social media to research products
People don’t just use search engines for researching and buying products anymore.
With over half of web users using social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to learn more about brands and products before buying, sharing product info and deals across social media is a no-brainer!
Social media platforms are becoming so prevalent in product research that more marketers are optimising their social media content for user searches. Yep. They’re doing SEO on social media!
The central platform this is happening on is TikTok, with them even doing TV and out-of-home ads to promote the platform as a place to search for solutions and do product research.
2. 64% of users purchase products after watching a video on social media
Video content on social media is an excellent way of providing engaging and helpful content to your audience and promoting your products.
Countless brands use video on social media to announce new products, showcase what they do, share video reviews from existing customers, and promote new deals and offers.
So, if you’ve got some video content on your website or other channels like LinkedIn, be sure to get it up on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to reach more people and get your products in front of your audience.
With 64% of brands getting sales from doing precisely that, it’d be crazy not to!
3. 33% of users would choose to contact a brand via social media instead of calling
With brands regularly monitoring their social media platforms and some phone lines having long waits on hold, it’s not surprising that a third of people prefer to message brands on social media rather than call.
As part of that 33%, one of the first places I’ll look when researching a brand is social media. If I want to contact them to learn more about their products, social media platforms like Instagram make it very easy to drop them a message.
Aside from the ease of use benefits, many people have anxiety around making and receiving phone calls, with 76% of millennials reporting they become anxious when their phone rings.
That’s why many people prefer to quickly type up and send messages on social media to avoid anxious moments like that.
4. Over 93% of brands acquire at least one new customer from a video they posted on social media
With almost every brand winning at least one customer from posting on social media, incorporating social into your digital marketing strategy is a bit of a no-brainer.
One of the key advantages of social media is that you can sign up and start posting for free!
If you can get your strategy right, and after investing in some tools and software to take your social media game to the next level, you could start bringing in a lot of sales without spending a fortune.
5. 71% of users who had positive experiences with a company on social media are likely to recommend them to others
The right social media strategy can work wonders for your brand awareness and credibility.
If you’re using social media to engage with and provide value to your audience, provide support, or manage and respond to enquiries, then you’ve got an excellent opportunity to make a good first impression and create a positive and memorable experience.
If you do, you’re far more likely to receive recommendations and referrals from happy customers.
6. 52% of online brand discovery comes from social media channels
If you want to increase your brand awareness and visibility, social media is the place to do it.
With over 4.26 billion people using social media worldwide (56.8% of the world’s population), you have an almost unlimited reach potential. Of course, you won’t reach everyone on social media, but you could reach a massive audience with the right content and optimisation.
If your business isn’t on social media, you could limit your potential for reaching and engaging with your target audience.
7. 49% of consumers depend on social media influencers for recommendations
Although influencer marketing has been around for a long time, since 1760 according to some reports, it wasn’t until about 2014, when social media was already huge and growing fast, that influencers became a big part of marketing.
In fact, in the last six years alone, the influencer marketing industry has grown from $1.7 billion to $15 billion per year (2016 to 2022); that’s a growth of 782%!
But if you want an example of a brand that’s nailing their influencer marketing on social media, look no further than AU Vodka.
Currently, their brand is rapidly expanding and launching in new countries and markets – and one way they’re achieving rapid growth is by partnering with influencers and celebrities.
Take their launch in the U.S., for example. They could have just sent the product out to their stockists and had it lined up on the shelves of a few supermarkets, but that’s not what they did.
They instead partnered with U.S. rapper ‘Moneybagg Yo’, rolled up in a Rolls Royce, and had the rapper say, “AU Vodka Black Grape now available in the U.S.”.
That’s much more powerful than a silent launch, especially considering Moneybagg Yo’s 8.5 million followers on Instagram and 11.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Choosing the right influencers for your industry and audience could help build more brand awareness and trust.
8. 63% of consumers expect brands to via support through social media
Social media isn’t all about promotion and brand awareness; it’s also about supporting existing customers.
Social media platforms, Twitter especially, have become a common place for brands to offer product and service support, with some even creating entire profiles dedicated to handling inbound support enquiries.
Brand awareness and customer acquisition through social media are usually what everyone talks about – it’s mostly what I’ve discussed so far in this blog post!
However, strong customer retention is essential for maintaining business growth.
With social media offering a free platform to support your customers and most consumers expecting brands to use it, it’s certainly something you should consider.
9. 40% of surveyed people said they’re unlikely to create an emotional connection with a brand they haven’t engaged with on social media
As we barrel further and further down the road of digitisation and automation, one thing that brands have started to lose touch with is the emotional connection with their customers.
The more processes are automated and the more prevalent AI becomes in marketing, the less human interaction consumers have.
But social media allows brands to engage with their audience directly and build stronger emotional connections that their customers will remember.
Let’s take 7Bone as an example. As a restaurant, they could follow the norm of promoting their food, new additions to their menu, and new events or locations and leave it at that. But they take a slightly different approach.
By putting more personality into their posts and actively engaging with their users directly, even making light of negative comments, it helps them create a following that isn’t just there for the photos of their burgers but for the entertainment value they provide.
It certainly worked on me a few months ago when 7Bone turned a comment calling one of their burgers ‘disgusting’ into a hilarious series of Instagram Stories, with polls that their followers could engage with – I even did a LinkedIn post on it at the time, which you can read here.
The takeaway here is that social media can help you build powerful emotional connections with your customers, and with 40% of consumers saying that they usually only make connections with brands on social media, it’s what your audience might want!
10. 46% of consumers will buy from brands they’re familiar with
Brand recognition and trust are essential factors in a customer’s buying decision, and without them, you’ll struggle to bring in leads and sales.
While this statistic isn’t focused on social media, I think it’s important to add, considering how powerful posting on social media can be for building brand awareness and trust.
However, simply posting regularly on social media isn’t enough to build trust with your audience; you need to post the right stuff.
I’m sure we’ve all come across some brands on LinkedIn or Instagram that do nothing but promote their products and services all day, every day. Also, I’m sure you’d agree that those brands and their lack of effort in their content don’t give you the best first impression.
Instead, if they posted content that you could take some value from, like a list of tips, free downloadable guides, or even just general discussions on topics that you want to learn more about, it would be far more likely to cement them as a genuine and knowledgeable brand in your mind.
The same goes for your audience and social media posts too. If you’re consistently posting engaging and valuable content that your audience enjoys, you will see more success in building that level of trust with them.
Additionally, 47% of consumers will pay more for brands they trust, so if you can nail your content and build trust with your audience, you won’t just see more leads and sales coming in but potentially higher average order values as well!
Want to up your social media game?
After all those statistics, you’re probably thinking about how you can get started or double down on your social media marketing activities.
But great content can take a lot of time and effort to get right – so let us do it for you!
With our content creation and social media services, and work with you to turn your unique industry experience and expertise into engaging content that your audiences will love!
Book a 15-minute discovery call with one of our digital and growth specialists here!
