Consumer expectations commonly drive organizational changes in any industry. In the 90’s consumers wanted details of products and services, so businesses responded with improved training for better-versed sales teams. They created websites to paint a more thorough picture. And as goods sold across more time zones, customers on the West Coast expected an East Coast company to accommodate their need for support the same as a local vendor. Now those 24/7 Call Centers are staffed with chat agents for those needing less tedious assistance than a phone call, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction. Consumers today expect businesses to have a social media presence to share industry knowledge, offerings, insights, and more!
According to a Harris Poll/ Hootsuite survey, a social media presence for an organization is important to 41% of Americans while almost half of all Americans have already engaged with a company via a social media platform. As businesses have adopted more social marketing strategies, we can only expect these numbers to increase and customers to engage via social platforms more often. ME Marketing Services shows us how to leverage the right channels for your target audiences here.
Jim Anthony | Founder So-Mark
Source: memarketingservices.com | Re-Post So-Mark 6/29/2017 –
Last year I made the case for social media marketing for small businesses in terms of why they need to even use it. According to the 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner, 92% of marketers said that social media is important to their businesses (that included business owners as well). So obviously businesses are getting the message.
This year, not much has changed, you still need to use social media for your business, however, it’s more important now to have an exact plan, or strategy, about how you are going to implement your social media marketing.
Get this – 41% of Americans say it’s important that the institutions they engage with have a strong social media presence and of those Americans who have a social media account, 28% would rather engage with a brand/organization on social media than visit a physical location.
So let’s do some math. There are roughly 326 million Americans. According to Pew Research Center, 69% of adults in the U.S. use social media, which makes approximately 225 million people. If 28% would rather engage with you on social media than walk in your door, that means 63 million people prefer interacting with businesses on social media than in-person. And that includes me.
The top choice for a customer care channel is social media (Sprout Social) so now is the time to start crafting that oh-so-important strategy to make it all work.