Research from social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group this week found that ‘companies with the highest levels of social media activity on average increased revenues by 18% in the last 12 months, while the least active saw sales drop 6% over that period’.
Companies were scored based on the level of social media interaction across the key social media channels including blogs, Facebook, Twitter and wikis.
Starbucks came out on top with a score of 127, followed by Dell (123), eBay (115), Google (105), and Microsoft (103).
Companies that scored well generally had dedicated — if small — teams focused on social media initiatives. The most successful of these evangelized across the entire organization to gain broad-based support and cooperation. And instead of taking a traditional communications approach based on messaging and talking points, they embrace a conversational mode.
The report sorted companies according to four categories,
“Mavens” – most aggressive brands in social media
“Wallflowers” sitting on the sidelines.
“Butterflies” — companies that are spread too thin across social properties, and
“Selectives” — those that excel by focusing on just a few channels.
-Media and technology companies tend to be “mavens”
-Financial, food and beverage, consumer products and apparel brands were reported to sit at the other end of the spectrum .
It should be noted that the revenue growth figure cited in the study is an aggregate of all the “mavens,” and not a reflection of just one company.
You can read the full article at Media Post
How good is this report??
Businesses of all sizes can’t ignore it. Up until now they could argue social media was just a fad…now there’s evidence linking profitability with social media interaction.
Great summary Jenni!