Survey: Retailers lag in social outreach to consumers

NEW YORK — Consumers find it easy to use social media for brand engagement, but that doesn’t mean they are using it.

 

According to the new “Global Brand Simplicity Index” from branding firm Siegel+Gale, 65% of consumers say social media is a simple platform for learning about brands, products and services via social media. Yet only 32% use social media for this purpose.

 

Similarly, 45% of consumers find social media simple for engaging customer service, but only 11% use social media for customer service engagement.

 

Consumers are much more likely to find social media simple or use social media for connecting with friends, family and co-workers (81%/53%) or finding sources of entertainment (77% / 64%).

 

Not surprisingly, younger consumers are more likely to find it simple to use social media to obtain updates from brands and businesses. Seventy-four percent of consumers younger than 45, but only 61% of consumers older than 45, find social media to be a simple platform for this purpose.

 

While the disparity between finding social media a simple platform for a specific task and using social media for that task exists across all categories, the fact remains these rates are much lower for retail-oriented purposes than for more general purposes.

 

In response, Siegel+Gale advises retailers to provide consumers with entertainment before trying to sell to them via social media. In addition, the company recommends retailers try to stick to a social platform’s main purpose and avoid being too disruptive, as well as to try to increase customer service engagement levels on social media.