Is social media failing to connect with businesses?

In an article published by Alison Diana of Informationweek.com, the majority of consumers want to interact with businesses via social media outlets. However, less than one-third of companies actually have any type of social media strategy in place. Thus, we have a problem. So, then why aren’t businesses picking up on their consumers’ desire to connect?

This information on the many missed opportunities to use social media in business comes from a recent report put forth by Siemens Enterprise Communications in conjunction with leading research firm, Yankee Group. In the study, results showed that the average customer satisfaction with current business interactions via social media was just 65 percent while one third of businesses do not allow the use of social media at work or aren’t aware of their company’s participation in social networking.

Tsk. Tsk.

Overlooking social networking or merely passing social media off as a “waste of time” or boiling it down to goofing off on Facebook or Twitter is hardly the case. If used properly, social media can draw in tons of traffic to a website or help put a business that would have otherwise been an ‘unknown’ on the map for the first time.

All you have to do to see social media in action with a business is look at the recent ad campaign put forth by Old Spice. Old Spice found a clever and creative way to employ the use of several top social networking site: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (all user-generated) in order to strengthen their brand. Some may view Twitter as pointless, but when you look at what Old Spice did with their Twitter page, they actually took the time to interact with their followers. It was the perfect example of listening to the consumer and then responding (in real time) to their demand.

Selected highlights from the study

• 70 percent of consumers want access to company experts and support via social media channels and trust company information provided to them via their social networks.
• Nearly 60 percent of customers feel company outreach via social media would improve their loyalty to that company.
• Most customers feel that companies should be monitoring social media for customer feedback.
• 50 percent of respondents use social media daily or several times a day.
• Nearly 70 percent of employees feel they need better tools to track and manage social media for business, and would like the ability to initiate a Web conference automatically from a chat discussion at work, inviting people from within their social and work networks.

To read more about the study, click here. In the meantime, consider what sorts of social media practices your business is employing at the moment. What could you be doing better? What sorts of demands do your customers/clients want? Perhaps the most important thing to consider is the power that social media has to leverage your business above the competition. Never underestimate this!

(Digital Journal via InformationWeek)