The next time you attend a seminar where someone says social media doesn’t drive sales, just ignore it. Though some conventional wisdom says social media is for networking and boosting brand awareness only, a recent study suggests we should all take another look at this assumption.
The Q3 Social Intelligence Report from Adobe indicates (PDF) social sites like Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook aren’t just driving revenue. They are driving larger and larger amounts of it year over year, whether you count the first click or the last click customers make before a sale.
Of the three, Twitter saw the greatest increase in revenue per visitor over the last year while Facebook saw the least.
Social Media Sees Revenue Per Visitor Increase
Specifically, the report concludes that:
- Twitter saw a 300 percent increase in revenue per visitor.
- Pinterest saw a 150 percent increase.
- Facebook saw a 39 percent increase year over year.
Of course, this only amounts to about 93 cents per visitor for Facebook, 55 cents per visitor for Pinterest and 44 cents per visitor for Twitter as of September.
But experts say with the low cost of social media marketing and the ever increasing revenue being generated through customer referrals, it’s a resource businesses cannot afford to ignore.
Still, many businesses continue to undervalue social media marketing, particularly advertising, Venture Beat reports.
That’s because social media referrals are often only the beginning of the sales process. But with sales revenue generated by these referrals continuing to increase, it is probably not a step your business wants to skip.
Sales Photo via Shutterstock
I think that the biggest issue has been the trackability. Social media has been helping, but not getting credit. Now that the measurement is catching up to the reach/capability we’re seeing better results.
It all boils down to HOW you use it. If you like throwing messages out of nowhere, then you’ll surely agree when they say that you cannot make any money with social media. But if you have studied your audience before even using this medium, then you can find some good success with it.
Definitely agree with you there, Aira. As with most platforms, whether it be Google Adwords, Twitter or Facebook, no amount of eyes on the screen can guarantee sales unless you shape your message for the right pair of eyes.
Oct. 24, 2013 stories when Pinterest was valued at $3.8 billion said they had no revenue per management. $100 in revs to $250 in rev is an 150% increase in rev per user. Worthless. Give us total rev for last 4 quarters.
VC’s are just throwing money at anything that is social media/mobile. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Dot com bubble 2.0.