Here is more information from our Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index released earlier this month. Today's topic is social media.
Social media is turning out to be a touchpoint with enormous potential for satisfying shoppers and building loyalty and relationships. When we study our own clients using our Social Media Value Calculation, we see that social media has little direct impact on web traffic. In fact, in our most recent Social Media Value Calculation benchmark we saw that only 1% of site visitors came direct from a social media site. However, 18% of the site visitors indicated that social media was an influence on their visit to the website. When applying this methodology we are able to attribute how much revenue is influenced by social media, helping companies truly understand the return on investment for their social media marketing efforts and also the value that the viral effect of social media is having on their business.
Back to our Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index. First, when customers rate their satisfaction with various touchpoints, they are actually more satisfied with their interactions on Facebook and Twitter than many other customer touchpoints, including the website!
What social sites are most e-retail shoppers using? No surprise here. Facebook.
But where do they want to hear from retailers? 42% don't want to hear from retailers at all on social sites.
42% of survey respondents say they don't want to interact with retailers on social sites, but the next question indicates that only 29% aren't actually interacting with any retailers, which mean there are some people who SAY they don't want to interact with retailers on Facebook who are already doing so. That's why it's important to have a methodology that dig a little deeper. In fact, 69% of online shoppers are interacting with at least one retailer on social networks. This is a huge growth area for retail, and as people begin to be able to make purchases on Facebook and other social sites, understanding how this experience is impacting first-time and loyal customers will be critical.
Most people choose to friend, follow, or like a retailer on a social site to learn about sales, special offers and products. Very few do so for customer support. Understanding what your customers are coming to your site for can help you with the content on your social pages.
We also see that more than half of those who are interacting with a retailer on a social site have made a purchase because of it. Wow! This is a real testament to the power of those offers you're posting on your Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
One final point of data related to the value of social media. We always ask about customer acquisition sources, and there are some major shifts year-over-year.
- Internet advertising and traditional media are both way down as a driver of traffic to websites.
- Social media, along with email marketing, are both way up.
- Company familiarity is also up (and could be due to more exposures/touch points on social media).
This data tells me we need to be doing a better job, as an industry, getting at the real value of social media.
