12 surprising stats for brands that learn social media skills

Peter Drucker (at right) said:  The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.
How would Peter say brands that do business online are doing?
The trend is brands continue to do more business online, Despite a weak economy, online sales have grown for five consecutive quarters and, in the 4th quarter of 2010, online sales were a record breaking $43.4 billion, +11% versus year ago, according to comScore.
But statistics show for companies that learn social media skills, the benefits are a lot greater.  If you have a brand that has an online presence (and who doesn’t), these stats give direction on how to better manage your time, resources and marketing dollars.  More important, they show how to create and keep more customers now and for some time to come.
Here are 12 surprising stats that show the benefits to brands that learn social media skills.

1. TRAFFIC TO COMPANY WEBSITES IS -23% IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS.  More business is moving online but the company website is clearly becoming less relevant.   
2. 25% OF TIME PEOPLE SPEND ONLINE IS ON SOCIAL NETWORKS. That’s up from 15% a year ago and shows pretty directly where all that traffic away from company websites is going.
3. 40% OF COMPANIES NOW DRAW MORE TRAFFIC TO THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE THAN THEIR WEBSITE.  According to the Harvard Business Review, it’s part of our DNA as human being to want to share our brand experiences with others.  The numbers show more people would rather learn and stay in touch with brands through social networks than listen to the company speak of corporate websites.
4. 22% OF COMPANIES  NOW HAVE A BLOG BUT THE AVERAGE RATE OF POSTING IS 1X/YEAR.  That’s over 1 in 5 but the average publishing rate is 1 in 52.  The business building potential of blogs has not even been touched.
5. ONLY 30%  OF COMPANIES CLAIM TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING TOOLS TO REPORT CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THEIR BRANDS TO THEIR MANAGEMENT.  Social media offers brands the opportunity to fish where the fish are but not if you don’t listen to where the conversations are occurring.
6. 57% ADMIT THEIR BRANDS ARE AT RISK NOT USING TOOLS TO MONITOR CUSTOMER CONVERSATIONS.  This may occur for a variety of reasons: 1) Not enough time, 2) not enough resources or 2) lack of knowledge about specific monitoring tools.  With over half admitting their brands are as risk, the liklihood some progress is going to occur is good.   
7. THE #1 REASON PEOPLE PRESS THE A FACEBOOK “LIKE” BUTTON IS TO RECEIVE PROMOTIONS AND DISCOUNTS.  In other words, when consumers are on Facebook, what we are saying to brands is “talk to me because if I like what you do for me, I’m going to be your biggest fan.”
8. BRANDS THAT USE FACEBOOK FOR ECOMMERCE ACHIEVE 2%-4% CONVERSION (ON PAR WITH ECOMMERCE WEBSITES) AT NO COST THROUGH WALL POSTS.  The same conversion rate for no money.  Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
9. FACEBOOK STORES (A SIMPLE, FREE OR LOW COST ADDITION TO A FACEBOOK PAGE) TYPICALLY SECURE 1-10% OF A BUSINESSES’ FAN BASE.  This is perhaps one of the best illustration that social media can be used for social commerce.
10. OVER 40% OF THE TIME PEOPLE ARE ON TWITTER, THEY ARE LEARNING ABOUT PRODUCTS/SERVICES OR PROVIDING OPINION ABOUT BRANDS.  That’s close to half the time consumers are on Twitter..
11. PEOPLE SPEND 20% OF THEIR TIME ON TWITTER BUYING PRODUCTS:  Here’a all the brand related reasons people go to Twitter.
12. THE RATE OF GROWTH FOR “SOCIAL COMMERCE” (SALES THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS) IS PREDICTED TO INCREASE +56% ANNUALLY FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 5 YEARS.  That’s far above the increase in online sales noted at the top of this post.  It is expected to continue at this pace for some time as the chart before for Booz & Company illustrates.  Said another ways, brands that use social media for sales are going to more than double their business every two years.

The sources for this statistics comes from a variety of companies and individuals.  They include: Booz & Company, comScore, ExactTarget, Harvard Business Review, Marketing Profs, Silicon Alley Insider, Social Media Examiner, WebTrends, Mike Stelzner, Ann Handley and Jeff Bullas with my thanks.
Do these stats surprise you or cause you to want to learn social media skills for your brand?