10 Statistics That Prove Your Brand Needs a Strong Social Presence

This may come as a surprise, but social media is for more than just sharing funny animal videos or arguing about politics with strangers. In fact, social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are crucial to any business that wants to still be relevant in the future. But don’t just take our word for it. Here are 10 recent statistics that prove a strong social presence is essential to your brand’s success:

53% of Americans who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those brands (source)

Never underestimate the power of brand loyalty. Social media is the perfect platform for increasing your loyal customer following.

88.2% of US companies use social networks for marketing purposes (source)

That means if you aren’t using social media for marketing by now, you’re in the minority.

71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others (source)

Word-of-mouth referrals are free marketing, and interacting with consumers on social media can increase those referrals.

33% of people prefer to contact a company through social media as opposed to by phone (source)

It’s good business to make it easy for your customers to reach you through their desired communication platform.

75% of people have purchased something because they saw it on social media (source)

So you can’t use the excuse that social media won’t bring in revenue.

48.8% of brands use Instagram as of 2016, and that’s expected to increase to 70.7% this year (source)

More and more brands are joining Instagram to reach the younger audiences that flock there.

50% of millennials use the internet to research a product before they purchase (source)

If you think they’re only researching your brand's website, you're mistaken. Millennials will also search for your social media pages and judge your brand based on what they find, or don’t find.

89% of the messages sent via social media to a brand go ignored (source)

Remember the 4th point? People want to reach you through social media, and many brands letting these communication attempts go ignored.

50.4% of Gen Xers and 55% of Baby Boomers tend to follow a brand on social media before purchasing a product (source)

Social media isn’t just for brands that target millennials. Those more mature demographics are still highly active on social media platforms.

Social media ad spending is expected to reach 16.9% of digital ad spending in 2017 (source) 

That means any digital marketing strategy isn’t complete without a social media plan.