Social Media Impact Takes Awhile to Gauge

All those marketers who are rushing to increase their social media spend take note: A new study says social media has almost no influence on online purchasing behavior.

via mashable.com

This new report from Forrester and GSI is filled with headline-grabbing data. "Social Media Has Little Impact" is guaranteed link bait. I can just imagine the twitstorm that will ensue from a post or two about  traditional advertising being much more effective.
The reality is buried in the data. Two datapoints struck me. First of all, everything is more effective in tandem. Integrated marketing strategies are more effective than a single tactic alone. DUH! It's amazing how long we've been talking about that, and how often it has been said of late.

More significant is that organic search and word of mouth is really the biggest driver of purchase behavior. However, the report did not look at the impact that social media has on organic search results. So, while people may not go directly from Twitter to an online purchase, it is very likely that the purchase was influenced by a Twitter or Facebook conversation. Even more likely is that the brand that was most engaged in social media was actually the one that was at the top of their organic search results. Or to put it another way, if a brand takes time to listen and engage in the conversation, posts relevant and interesting content, and earns its way to the top rank in organic search, it can be just as effective as email or paid advertising.

Comments

[Seattle public relations firms]

Liked your site. Looks like simple but awesome. Please keep this to update!

[Sean Gelles]

The major limitation of this study is that between 70 and 90 percent of retail purchases are still made offline at bricks and mortar establishments (According to Eric Schonfeld of Forrester, 90% of retail is offline while a Deloitte study for the Grocery Manufacturers Association found that figure to be 70%). Let's figure out how much our social media investments are impacting that chunk of revenue before we start cutting budgets please? Thanks for sharing.

[Michael White]

I'm writing a dissertation on Social Media soon (keeping exact details under wraps at the moment). This post of yours is very interesting. Thank you. Will deffo reference this ;-)

M.

[PR agencies]

An interesting post - I did read this link on another website looking into PR V Social media - so am torn in my opinion.

Can see the benefits in both but do agree on the social side.

[Katie Delahaye Paine]

Thanks Marcia & Niloo, I think that for years people have been essentially faking results by using last click metrics that falsely attribute behavior to whatever they saw just prior to the purchase rather than factoring in word of mouth and influence. It's not just true of social media but of PR as well.

[Niloo Mirani]

This study is interesting, and as you get at - quite deceiving. I believe that the majority of people who engage in social media would say that it affects purchase decisions. Trends are one of the biggest drivers of the phenomenon. Even before social media existed, word of mouth was one of the biggest drivers of purchases in many industries, and social media is simply speeding up that "word of mouth" aspect.

Thank you for the post!

[Boutique Website Design]

That sounds like a very interesting study. It’s amazing how social media has such a grip on so many aspects of society.

[Marcia J]

Great points. It's all in the integrated mix. I'm about to go into a meeting to a propose a blog. Blogs are about creating awareness, engaging the prospect or customer and expanding an organization's presence -- and influence -- on the web, yes, but in the minds of those customers and prospects. Not to mention the fact they can be darn handy for finding info.