Earlier this year Foresee Results reported that 64% of those they surveyed indicated they preferred to hear about sales and promotions by email – only 8% preferred to hear via social media.
This supports statistics shared by NielsenWire in September 2011 that show most people engage in social media to keep in touch with family (89%) and friends (88%) – not necessarily to be bombarded with sales and promotions.
While these numbers may seem to be in conflict and leave some businesses wondering the value of engaging in social media, other statistics from NielsenWire help highlight why businesses need to take social media engagement seriously.
- 68% use it to read consumer feedback (71% parents, 64% non-parents)
- 60% use it to learn about products (64% parents, 59% non-parents)
- 58% use it to get coupons/promos (64% parents, 56% non-parents)
- 54% use it to give positive feedback (59% parents, 52% non-parents)
- 51% use it to give negative feedback (57% parents, 49% non-parents)
These numbers highlight a few things:
- Social media is one piece of the marketing pie and not the whole thing (the same can be said of email)
- Email and social media have an important place at the marketing table
- Avoiding social media does not eliminate it’s potential to impact our business – our online reputation is impacted by how we do business and the way clients perceive our service and products, whether we are online or not
Email and social media serve different purposes and can reinforce and enhance the impact each has when used together. This holds true for other marketing and advertising initiatives added to the mix, along with having a functional website
A well thought out, multi-pronged and integrated strategy is almost always far more effective than one stream all by itself.