Businesses still missing out on social media opportunities, Sensis report reveals

Businesses have the opportunity to make money from social media but many don’t have a social networking presence at all or are squandering the opportunity by pushing too many direct advertisements instead of talking with customers.

The findings, from a new Sensis Social Media Report, come just days after a separate report found a majority of SMEs are now at least putting money in their marketing budgets for social media.

“The biggest challenge for businesses in social media is two-way engagement with consumers,” says Sensis group manager of emerging business and innovation, Simon Betschel.

“There needs to be an element of listening and looking at what people are saying.”

The Sensis report found Facebook remains the most popular social network, used by 97% of respondents who use social media and by 60% of internet users overall.

But only 14% of small businesses, 25% of medium businesses and 50% of large businesses have a social media presence. And social media is usually only given 5% of a total marketing budget, the report has found.

“I think these results show that obviously there is a need for businesses to enter this space, but there is also a great number that are actively engaged, and they have a really good presence and are working well,” Betschel says.

Users are beating out businesses when it comes to social networking, and the report identifies many SMEs are missing out on opportunities to market to these users.

For instance, 42% of research for products on social media is for clothes and fashion items, with 39% devoted to electrical goods and 28% for furniture. The Sensis figures also show 12% of users overall are researching products on social media.

“The important figures are after that,” Betschel says, “because you see that more than one third of those people actually purchased something after they searched, and 70% of those purchases were made online.”

“So you see a direct correlation between people searching for brands on social media, then deciding to purchase a product and actually doing so all online. It shows social media has become a powerful driver for brand engagement.”

The research also shows two-thirds of social networking users research a product before they buy, reading an average of six reviews. And many are most interested in finding discounts, giveaways and invitations through social media pages.

Betschel says this provides great opportunities for businesses to start speaking with customers online and offer them products they want – but they face a difficult challenge of overcoming the desire to just advertise in the traditional ways.

“We’ve noticed that businesses are still coming to terms with this real-time engagement of users, and participating in the conversation instead of controlling it. Being social is connecting with other users, but you need to continually work at it.”

“This is the biggest challenge for businesses. There is an element of listening, and then talking, but for these consumers it’s all about relevance. It’s real time, so you can listen to what they are looking for and give it to them, otherwise they get turned off.”