A spirited debate seems to exist over whether a company’s social media activity actually drives sales.
Market research giants Forrester and GMI Commerce published a report earlier this year that tried to determine what percentage of retail sales came from social media visits. The study concluded that less than 1% of all orders were coming from social network shoppers, and that “paid search traffic is the most effective way for retailers to engage new
customers, while email marketing captivates returning customers.”
It should be noted, however, that the research was done with large retailers and author Sucharita Mulpuru admitted that smaller businesses do disproportionately well in social media.
So what does this mean for those of us engaged in B2B marketing and PR? If we aren’t driving sales with social media, should we still be utilizing Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and the like?
I would argue yes.
Direct sales rarely come from social media. In most cases, people don’t go to social media sites to buy. They go there to socialize and engage in conversations. As Jason Falls says in a recent post on Entrepreneur.com:
“Consumers see the social layer around a brand as one that supports their buying decision in providing engagement and information pre-purchase, then supports them after the purchase when they have questions.”
So, what can you do with social media?
Increase brand awareness
Social media helps potential purchasers find out who you are—early on in their decision process. No one is going to buy from you unless they have heard of you. So use social media to help people find you.
Improve your search ranking
Google puts a higher value on sites that have links to and from social media. So, one of the side benefits of using social media for your business is that it will help in search engine optimization.
Establish trust
Seeing you consistently builds both awareness and trust. Plus, social media encourages users to recommend products and websites with activities such as liking, posting and retweeting. One of the biggest benefits of social media is word-of-mouth marketing. People become curious about you because their friends and contacts know you and/or buy from you.
Consider this comment from Seth David, owner of Nerd Enterprises, found in the post “Does Social Media Drive Sales?” “Just about every single lead that comes in my door tells me that they were watching my videos on YouTube and/or reading my blog posts. Most likely, the way that they got to those two places was from a tweet or a post on Facebook.”
Social media can drive sales, but indirectly, by influencing potential buyers as well as current customers. It can increase awareness, change public perceptions and build top-of-the-sales-funnel activity.
For more thoughts on how social media can be used in B2B marketing, read our Six Reasons On Why Social Media Marketing Makes Sense For Business-to-Business Companies.
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Alison Frederick is the director of business development for WordWrite Communications. You can email her directly at alison.frederick@wordwritepr.com or find her on Twitter @frederick_ali.
