Customer engagement on social media is a growing need and a growing expectation. For businesses and organizations looking to increase or improve their customer service and communication efforts on social media that need current stats to back up the argument for a greater investment in this channel, here are 23 starling social media statistics (also shown in SlideShare format on the right):
1. Gartner predicts that by year’s end, more than 60% of Fortune 500 companies will “actively engage” customers with Facebook marketing, up from 20% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
2. 82% of the world’s online population is reached by social networking sites, representing 1.2 billion users around the world. (Source: comScore)
3. LinkedIn boasts more than 150 million members, including executives from all 2011 Fortune 500 companies. (Source: LinkedIn)
4. Twitter has 140 million active users, who post a total of 340 million tweets every day. (Source: The Next Web)
5. Nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online around the world is now spent on social networking sites. (Source: ComScore)
6. Only 25% of business-run social media accounts are defined by meaningful customer engagement and consistent content distribution. (Altimeter Study).
7. 17% of customers have used social media in the past year to get a customer service response. Of the 17%:
- 50% seek a response from a company to help you with a service issue
- 48% praise a company for a great service experience
- 47% share information about your service experience with a broader audience
- 46% vent frustration regarding a bad customer service experience
- 43% ask questions of other users about how to get better service
- 35% seek recommendations from others about businesses that provide great service
- 33% praise an individual for providing a great service experience. (American Express 2012 Customer Barometer)
8. Most companies that use social media use Facebook or Twitter. (Source: JD Power and Associates Study)
9. Customers who engage with companies over social media spend 20% to 40% more money with those companies than other customers. (Bain & Company Report)
10. 40% of the consumers who click the”like” button on a company’s Facebook page do not think that their action should give that company the right to market to them via their news feed.
11. An average of 460,000 new Twitter accounts are created every day.
12. Over a third of online respondents who interact with brands on the internet do so to complain.
13. Customers on Twitter:
- 39% post about their general discontent with a brand
- 17% are directly requesting assistance
- 19% are voicing general praise about a brand
- 5% are voicing a possible request for assistance
- 20% are posting for other reasons (Source: CSI/YouGov/Brandwatch Study)
14. More than 20% of consumers use social media to seek information or to find deals or recommendations. (Source: JD Power and Associates Study)
15. For customers, the most widely adopted type of social media is social networking sites. Facebook has the highest adoption rate, followed by LinkedIn. (Source: JD Power and Associates Study)
16. Half of companies surveyed respond to comments, regardless of whether they’re positive, negative, or neutral. (Source: JD Power and Associates Study)
17. More than 25 % of global companies have a closed wall on Facebook. (Source: Social Bakers Study)
18. 55% of businesses IGNORE customer feedback provided over social media. (Source: Satmetrix Study)
19. 60% of customers feel companies have generally improved their response times over social media channels. (Source: American Express 2012 Customer Barometer)
20. Global corporations are struggling to manage an average of 178 business-related social media accounts. (Source: Altimeter Study)
21. Facebook has over 845 million monthly active users. (Source: Facebook)
22. 79% of 86% European of U.S.online adults engage with social media. (Source: Forrester)
23. 68% of customers in the UK and 61% of customers in France believe that customer service departments should be responsible for social customer service. (Source: Eptica Study)
