Do Social Media Results Justify Investment?
ForeSee Results released its annual report on the state of social media effectiveness for retailers in the United States. The report shows that social media interactions are a primary influence for only about 5% of visitors to retail websites. The research indicates that, in fact, more traditional marketing techniques like promotional emails, search engine results, and even advertising influence far more visits to retail websites. Other highlights of the report include:
Traditional marketing techniques like promotional emails influence not only more traffic; they deliver better-quality traffic. Some of the most satisfied site visitors arrived at the site because of previous familiarity with a brand, promotional emails, word-of-mouth, and product review websites.
Most customers are eager to engage with retailers, but prefer to do so via email or on retail websites, rather than on social sites. In fact, only 8% of online shoppers said that’s social media was their preferred way to interact with a retailer.
Survey Reveals CRM practitioners Have Been Slow to Embrace Social Networking
SugarCRM, a customer relationship management (CRM) company, announced the results of its 2010 Social CRM Survey. The poll's results reinforced the notion that in the year 2010, CRM practitioners have been slow to embrace social. Those that have chosen to take advantage of this new technology have enjoyed a competitive advantage in the market and a considerable return on investment, placing them firmly ahead of their challengers. Key survey results include:
42 percent of respondents said LinkedIn is where they most often interact with or research customers and prospects, while 32 percent listed Facebook and 14 percent listed Twitter.
50 percent of respondents said yes, social networks have helped their business become more successful in the last 12 months.
Only 26 percent of respondents said they currently integrate their customers' social networking information with their existing CRM data.
72 percent of respondents said they plan to integrate their customers' social networking information into their existing CRM data within the next year.
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