Almost all organizations include social media as a vital part of their marketing strategy. They have individuals, if not teams, that are dedicated to social media marketing. If your brand isn’t present on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., you’re missing out on a large audience, right? Well, maybe not so much. 

Research over the past several years has found that social media does not provide the “bang for the buck” that most people think it does. A recent meta-analysis of over 50 studies and reports on social media marketing found:

• Even in 2021, marketers aren’t very good with data. Various studies and reports have found that at least two-thirds to three-fourths of marketers are unable to quantify the impact of their social media efforts. Even so, marketers are planning to increase their social media spend moving forward.
• Organic social media isn’t all that. Evidence shows that when a consumer “likes” a brand’s social media post, they are already partial to that brand, and the “like” isn’t an indication of the consumer’s attitude or purchase intent. Rather than causing brand affinity, social media engagement is just a consequence of that affinity.
• Building online social groups requires forgetting what you know about marketing. Social groups are driven by community. This requires the ability to go above and beyond and relate to people. It’s not about driving conversions, which is what marketers are hard-wired to do.
• Let Customer Care handle social. Let’s face it – social media is about building an engaged community, which is not a marketing function. The most successful social marketing efforts are a result of this mindset.

A couple of final points to consider:

• A study from SproutSocial found that although social messages requiring a brand response increased by 146% over three years, the response rate from brands decreased during the same time, with an average response rate of only 10%.
• Another report from Smartinsights found a huge disconnect between how businesses rated their social media efforts compared to their customers. Eighty percent of businesses rated their social efforts as exceptional but only 8% of their customers agreed.