What Social Media Really Looks Like for Everyday Brands

Social, regardless of size or market segment, is the leading channel for building meaningful relationships with customers and community members. This statement is proven with new social media data from Spredfast.

 

Spredfast recently surveyed more than 60 of the world's top brand and agency social marketers to learn what trends they are seeing and planning for in 2014. Here are a few key facts from their results, indicating what social media really looks like in everyday organizations:

  • 52 percent of respondents indicated that social is the leading engagement vehicle in their marketing mix while email and websites account for 25 percent and 12 percent, respectively, of brands' customer engagement strategy.
     
  • Marketing (97 percent) and PR departments (58 percent) are most involved in a brand's social media management, but it is still affecting nearly everyone in a company, as employees from product management (17 percent) to sales (22 percent) to legal (25 percent) are involved in planning, shaping and/or executing their social media strategy (see image).
     
  • Internet professionals are still, however, in the early days of social media when it comes to increasing revenue. Nearly half of the brands surveyed (47 percent) are focused on how social is driving more meaningful engagements with their customers, but only 7 percent cited impact to increased revenue and sales as the biggest area of impact, and 4 percent said driving awareness around their products and services was the biggest impact social made.