Social Media ROI: 90% Of People Buy From Brands They Follow

A new study from Sprout Social shows that at least 90% of respondents buy from brands they follow on social media. Now, that’s what I call ROI.

A new study from Sprout Social is looking into the state of social media marketing and what to expect in the future. One thing is for sure, consumers expect your brand to be active on social media.

The consumers who connect with brands on social media are among the most loyal consumers. 9 out of 10 state that they buy from brands they follow. Even better, they usually spend more than other consumers.

What matters to consumers

When considering social media marketing, it becomes clear that marketers and consumers have different objectives and expectations.

For a majority of marketers (69%), boosting brand awareness is their number one goal with social media, ahead of increasing web traffic (52%), and growing their audience (46%).

But consumers are looking for something else, a more intimate relationship with the brands they love. For them, engagement with the audience is the most important (61%), followed by transparency (45%) and strong customer service (44%).

For consumers, engagement with the audience is the most important (61%), followed by transparency (45%) and strong customer service (44%).

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So while we are all looking for the next shiny piece of creative, our audience simply wants to connect better with our brand. Does that mean we should spend less time on producing high-quality content and more on responding to comments? The answer is yes.

In fact, consumers expect brands to respond quickly, very quickly even. 40% expect brands to respond within the first hour, with 79% saying that they won’t accept to wait more than 24 hours!

Instagram and YouTube for all

Another interesting finding from the Sprout Social study shows that the social web has definitely gone visual. Social sharing platforms that emphasize videos and photos, like Google’s YouTube and Facebook’s Instagram, have boosted their popularity among younger consumers. Almost three quarters (73%) of Generation Z said they plan to use Instagram more often, while 65% said they plan to spend more time on YouTube.