Social Media Encourages Purchases

Social Media has revolutionized the business world. Starting out as a medium where people could share their lives’ stories, update photos and stay in touch despite geographic locations, this advanced resource has evolved into a necessary advertising medium for businesses of all sizes.

In fact, nearly 40-percent of all social media users shared or added items as favorites after making purchases. This allowed their friends to see their product purchases, which in turn allows effective recommendations to be shared via untraditional means. Studies also show that Facebook is more effective at driving consumers to purchase products than other social media advertising counterparts, such as Google+, Pinterest, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Ironically, both in-store and online purchases are equally influenced by social media ratings and recommendations. Companies need to understand the cause and effect relationship between announcing an online product and what garnishes consumer attention to cause them to ultimately purchase the product. Is the correlation based on friends’ feedback? Are the purchases simply a coincidence? What was the influence that led to their purchasing decisions?

Companies must understand conversion rates in order to maximize their advertising campaigns. This allows companies to focus their efforts on successful advertising mediums that directly produce results. This experience is substantially different for all types of companies. Companies that promote movie trailers will want to know what makes consumers watch movies in a theater. Companies that focus their efforts on news stories will need to know how advertising influences their target audiences. Essentially, today’s social media campaigns guide consumers on their journey from social experiences to purchasing decisions.

Reports also show that nearly 89-percent of today’s savvy consumers use search engines to conduct detailed research prior to purchasing products. Of this total number, nearly 62-percent of these consumers make an in-store purchase after conducting research. Social media advertising generally shows up on the front page of search engine results, which gives these advertising platforms a significant edge in influencing consumer product purchases.

Consumers also report that personal recommendations highly influence their decision making processes, with nearly 78-percent of consumers taking personal recommendations to heart. This doesn’t mean all recommendations are equal. Generally people weigh the validity and value of the content, putting trusted friends first and foremost in this influential process.

Social Power Pack has the experienced knowledge to effectively target Google+, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They offer social media marketing packages that analyze competitors, helping give companies’ the inside edge in social media networking strategies.