Social Media – Engaging Customers

Now a day’s social media is fast becoming an important part of brand’s marketing plan. Today, many companies are using social networking to gain credibility, foster employee relationship, build forum for communication with customers and finally boost the sales.

90% companies are using social networking media for their brands and organizations. The survey brought that 42% brands/organizations spend more than 10 hours per week on their social media programs. Nearly 80% of the social media programs are led by the marketing department of brands/organization, while 78% of social media programs are B2C in orientation, followed by B2B adoption of 41% and Partners & Employees use 26%. Marketing is the area where social media is being used the most; followed by online reputation management/online PR. Lead generation happens to be third category for which companies use social media in India.

Some vital statistics, Purposes brand/organizations use social media are as follows:

1.       Competitive intelligence – 41%

2.      Customer service – 44%

3.      E-commerce – 18%

4.      Enterprise collaboration – 13%

5.      Lead generation – 48%

6.      Listening and analytics – 44%

7.      Marketing – 78%

8.      Online reputation management/Online PR – 71%

9.      Product ideas and development – 30%

10.   Recruitment – 24%

11.    Social CRM – 28%

12.   Thought Leadership – 43% (Source: Dataquest)
Overall, social media is becoming an important part of a brand’s marketing plan and cannot be avoided by brands and organizations any more.