Companies not involving themselves in social media are quickly discovering they are among the minority. The economic times have perhaps caused many of these companies to welcome social media with such open arms, the perception being an inexpensive move toward more exposure. Companies believe in social media to increase business without the high marketing budgets.
The inability to define “success” from social media efforts has caused some ambiguity among its affects on revenue and profit. The results are hard to quantify, and many companies have been peer-pressured into blindly hopping on the bandwagon, just because everyone’s doing it. Although there is no “right” approach, the top brands that have been successful utilizing their own unique strategies all have one thing in common: quantifiable results.
A study on the top 100 global brands using social media has concluded that there is a direct correlation between top financial performance and deep social media engagement. Not just having a Facebook or Twitter account, but deep engagement is key here, and by deep engagement, I mean interacting and responding to others, instigating discussions, and updating often.
With a social media team of only six people, Starbucks has managed to rank #1. Their ability to view social media as a relationship-building and listening tool, instead of a sales method, is surely the reason behind their success. Alexandra Wheeler, Director of Digital Strategy, explains:
“We live in the physical world with thousands of natural touch points, so when we laid out the vision for our social strategy, it felt like home for the brand. it’s about the relationships we form with our customers, not marketing.”
The important issue at hand, is to realize that every social media channel is different, and requires developing different facets of the relationships with that unique audience. Social media cannot be approached with a “one size fits all” mentality.
This study, done by Wetpaint, is a great analysis of the top 10 brands scoring the highest across social media channels. It categorizes the brand into one of four types (Mavens, Butterflies, Selectives, and Wallflowers), and uses these to describe the affects of social media presence on revenue and profit.
Click below to view the entire report in further detail.
ENGAGEMENTdb: Most Engaged Brands On Social Media -
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