Social media is greatly influencing consumer behaviour and if the top marketing bosses in the fortune 500 companies are going to remain out of the social platforms, it means that their companies are being discussed behind their doors and no responses to the comments. Companies can build their reputation through social media because this is where live discussions are aired out and viewed as well as responded to by millions of audiences.
In fact, consumers have gained confidence with the recommendations they get from their peers through these social media discussions, which eventually affect their buying behaviour. Perhaps one question that needs to be answered is; are the senior companies still underestimating the power of social media platforms?
In a recent study by Brian & Company, it showed some interesting findings, which implied that customers who engaged with companies over social network platforms were more likely to spend about 20 to 40 percent of their dollars with those companies when compared to other consumers who did not interact with the same companies through social media. What this means is that there is a deeper emotional influence to the buying behaviour of consumers through social media.
Nonetheless, social media spending is said to double within the next 5 years among the big fortune companies. In a survey conducted in US involving close to 500 chief marketing officers-CMOs, it showed that marketing bosses in big companies were considering increasing their spending on social media from the current 8.4 to 21.6 percent in the next 5 years.
Big consumer goods companies like Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Heineken and others are expected to be major contributors to the increased spending. P&G has been working on a $10 billion dollar marketing budget and it plans to spend about 20 percent of that amount on social media. In the past, big companies have not put a lot of attention on social media spending but they are slowly beginning to discover that they cannot do without these social channels.
Consumers are spending huge amount of time on social media and big companies need to reciprocate this trend. In order to measure the impact of social media on economies of scale, it is imperative that companies refrain from calculating direct financial gains realized from social engagement and perceive these channels as tools of brand awareness. In essence, although it looks as though the future is bright for social media integration in big companies, there is still more that needs to be done.
The fortune 500 companies should show a frontline role in making use of social media and this can be demonstrated by the CMOs or marketing officers joining the discussion groups in these social sites. Social networks are no longer a B2C or B2B engagement platforms but rather a person to person (P2P) relationship. With about 20 chief marketing offices of the Fortune 250 companies having already joined the twitter.com social network, it means others should follow their footsteps. But how long will it take for the fortune 500 CMOs to really embrace and realize the power of social media and their personal contributions on these platforms.
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