What Do Consumers Expect When They Engage With Your Business on Social Media?

By Rieva Lesonsky

What consumers want when they engage with your brand on social media is often very different than what you think they want, according to a new study by The CMO Council and Lithium. The study, “Variance in the Social Brand Experience,” polled more than 1,300 consumers and more than 100 marketers and found that, by and large, businesses aren’t giving consumers what they want.

More than half (55 percent) of consumers say they interact with brands on social networks primarily to learn about new products. But the biggest group (65 percent) do so to enter promotions or contests or to play games. About one-third use social media to share positive experiences with a company, and 25 percent use social to connect with other fans of a brand.

Consumers have high expectations when they interact with businesses on social media. They expect to get answers to questions or complaints within 24 hours, with 22 percent of consumers seeking instant responses and 19 percent seeking a response within a few hours. As for what they expect to get in return for following or liking your business:

• Exclusive offers (67 percent)
• Games and contests (65 percent)
• Opportunity to interact with other customers (60 percent)

While consumers are focused on offers, games and chances to get a reward, marketers, in contrast, think consumers “like” their brands just because they like the content they find online, to get news and information about the brand, or to make their voices heard. Just 27 percent thought customers followed their brands in order to get special offers—and only 22 percent of marketers actually offer special promotions or deals via social media.

What’s the takeaway? Sure, your fans and followers want to learn more about your company, and they do want to connect with their fellow fans. But as the old advertising truism goes, their biggest concern when liking you on social media is “What’s in it for me?” Unless your social media strategy offers something of concrete value to them, you’re likely to find your fan base becoming less and less engaged, as they move to competitors who give them more of what they’re looking for.

Image by Flickr user birgerking (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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