Sprout Social surveyed 1,000 social marketers to learn how marketers to up their goals for social media, what metrics do they use and how they interpret data and tools to achieve their goals. The same was cross-questioned by 1,000 consumers about how they behave and what they perceive brands to do to remain best-in-class on social. With the insights from this report, marketers can transform social into a significant growth engine for their brands.
Here are the key findings of the report for your ready reference.
With the growing popularity of social media, if you feel like everyone is on social media, you’re absolutely correct. Sprout Social’s research shows 50% of consumers have increased their social media usage in the last six months alone.
Sprout recommends marketers to identify their primary goals for using social platforms and figure out what insights they can share to make the greatest impact. Out of the survey, the goal that topped the list was 'Increasing brand awareness.'
69% of social marketers look for brand awareness, while 52% say increasing web traffic is their top priority. 46% focused on growing their brand’s audience.
The survey also laid out the various factors that influence a marketer’s approach to social. The top 2 factors topping the chart were ‘Performance to Date’ and ‘Social goals and advantages.’
It is interesting to see that whether it is to increase brand awareness or website traffic, brands see social media fueling the bottom-line growth. Where 89% of consumers say they will buy from a brand they follow on social media, 84% will choose that brand over a competitor. Additionally, 75% of consumers say they’ll increase their spending with brands they follow on social.
The report unveils the area where the marketers have huge opportunity to do more with the data at their disposal. The marketers have enough social data but aren’t using it to its fullest potential.
While 56% of all social marketers use social data to better understand their target audience, only 23% use social data to measure ROI and 16% use social data for competitive insights.
Sprout has also provided some insights into which platforms marketers and consumers use more often, which highlights a couple of interesting divides. Visual social platforms, like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, are quickly gaining traction among the marketers and the consumers.
When asked to describe what makes a brand’s social media presence stand out, the top response from both social marketers and consumers was creativity. Additionally, 61% of consumers say brands that are best in class on social know how to engage their audience.
There's a lot more in the Sprout Social Index 2020 Report, which you can download here. The insight might help you redefine your social media strategy and approach that will more closely connect with the consumers going forward. Stay tuned for more quick updates and findings!
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