Consumers are engaging with their preferred brands’ entertaining content, purchasing items during live shopping events, or watching try-on hauls on social media, which has become a regular part of their daily routine. According to The Sprout Social Index™, 54% of consumers report that their use of social media has increased in the past two years compared to the two years prior.
As the number of individuals using social networks continues to rise, there has been a parallel development in both social media and consumer habits. Therefore, it is essential to have a grasp on how to connect with your desired demographic.
In this article, we’ll discuss the top six ways social media influences consumer behavior and what each means for your brand’s social strategy.
1. Consumers buy directly from social
Index data shows the top reason consumers follow brands on social media is to stay informed about new products/services, followed by getting access to exclusive deals and promotions.
Why has social commerce gained such widespread popularity? One explanation is that it caters to consumers in their existing online spaces. McKinsey’s research indicates that most consumers utilize a minimum of three platforms during their shopping process. For numerous individuals, perusing Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok on a daily basis, whether for leisure or product discovery, is as habitual as their daily dental hygiene routine.
Networks continue to experiment with and formalize ecommerce capabilities to bring convenience to consumers and present brands with new revenue streams. For example, TikTok Shop launched in September 2023, enabling users to find and shop for items even more easily.
US annual social commerce sales per buyer are projected to double from $628 million to $1.224 billion in 2027, based on a forecast from Insider Intelligence.
Ways to apply this understanding
Social commerce makes it infinitely easier for brands to deliver the seamless purchase experience buyers want. You can turn a casual scroller into a new customer in a couple of clicks. For example, if you’re a retail business and a holiday is coming up, you can create a shoppable Facebook ad or offer a limited time offer using Instagram Shops for your seasonal product lines.
If you’re not already, look into what social commerce functionality is available on the channels your audience spends the most time on. From TikTok to YouTube livestream shopping, there is a growing number of ways to connect with ready-to-buy consumers.
If you’re a Sprout user, take advantage of our integrations with Shopify and Facebook Shops by connecting your product catalogs with our platform—you can quickly add product links in your outbound posts and customer replies.
Consumers anticipate reciprocal interaction with companies.
Social media adds another dimension to the brand-customer relationship. A brand is no longer a remote, faceless entity that we only learn about in publications, press releases or Google searches. Looking at a brand’s social networks helps you gauge their values, relevant news and offerings, and how they relate to their audience.
Social lets consumers engage and interact with businesses in a multitude of ways, from liking posts and following their accounts to sharing brand-related content, shouting out brand love or asking product questions. And of course, social shopping makes conversions faster.
Don’t hesitate to interact with your followers, participate in popular trends, pose inquiries or conduct surveys and question and answer sessions. Also, make sure to reply to private messages, comments, and mentions.
The Index found 51% of consumers said the most memorable brands on social respond to customers. Across all age groups, consumers want to know they’re being heard.
Brand authenticity will drive a customer to choose you over a competitor—and stick with you. This means upholding your organization’s claimed values, listening to your audience, discussing what matters to them, anticipating their needs and delivering on the promises you make.
Ways to apply this understanding
Engagement happens perpetually across multiple channels and formats. With a tool like Sprout’s Smart Inbox, you can set up rules to automatically tag and categorize inbound messages so you never miss an opportunity to engage.
Analyze trends and patterns across these conversations to gain a deeper understanding of your customers. What’s delightful and what’s frustrating them? What are they praising, and what are they criticizing? What are they sharing about your brand and your competitors with their own audiences?
Of course, brands should address complaints and negative inbound messages, but tools like Sprout can help brands get the answers to these questions so they can proactively engage versus reactively. For example, with social listening, you can uncover opportunities to surprise and delight your customers.
Gather feedback and actively listen to it, then distribute it within your organization. Communicate this feedback to team members in various departments, such as sales, marketing, product, and operations, to create more customized experiences for customers in the future.
3. Consumers turn to social media for customer service
The evolution of social media and consumer behavior has transformed customer service interactions. Before social, consumers could expect to interact with a brand by calling, emailing or visiting locations in person—complete with the infamous wait times to talk to a representative. Today, social is consumers’ preferred choice for sharing feedback and reaching out with a customer support issue or question.
The era of extended wait times on the phone accompanied by monotonous background music is coming to an end. Customers with inquiries about a product or concerns with an order are increasingly likely to contact a brand through their Facebook page, X (previously known as Twitter) @-mention, or Instagram direct message. However, the rapid pace of social media means that consumers anticipate quicker responses.
Index data shows customer service isn’t just about responding quickly either. Although 76% of consumers value how quickly a brand can respond to their needs, 70% expect a company to provide personalized responses to customer service needs.
Regardless of whether it’s a busy season, customer service teams may already be spread thin or lack resources, which can result in missed messages, slower responses and suboptimal replies. Prevent frustration, reduce delays and improve communication by evolving your approach to social customer service.
Customer support through social channels begins before a customer initiates contact. It involves gaining a thorough comprehension of your customer’s expectations, minimizing the potential for mistakes, and fostering enduring connections with your followers.
How you can use this insight
How can you create and maintain a social customer care strategy? Start by making it easy for customers to find you. Include relevant contact info on your organization’s social media profiles and bios. Make sure you’re monitoring Meta Messenger and direct messages on X, Instagram or TikTok (or consider recruiting a chatbot’s help) if that’s the communication channel your customers flock to most.
Collaboration between your company’s social media and customer service teams is essential. Using a social customer relationship management (CRM) tool allows for a unified source of information to deliver customer support while gaining a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior.
Another critical step is proactive message management. If a customer feels like they’re being ignored, they’ll move on to a more attentive competitor. Do you have ways to centralize inbound support messages across different social networks? Can your social customer care agents easily access important client information via CRM or help desk integrations? Do you have an efficient process for approving replies to customer questions on social?
If you answered “no” to any of these, don’t be afraid to turn to tools like Sprout to help your team work smarter and build stronger customer relationships.
In the era of artificial intelligence, consumers seek genuine and authentic experiences.
Index data shows authentic, non-promotional posts are ranked as the number one content type consumers don’t see enough of from brands on social. However, with limited bandwidth and resources, it can be difficult to consistently produce authentic, creative content at scale. Enter: artificial intelligence (AI).
And although 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work, consumers aren’t as eager to jump onto this technology wave. Over a third (42%) of consumers say they are slightly or very apprehensive about the use of AI in social media interactions.
Ways to apply this understanding
So how does this impact your brand’s content strategy? Consider pulling back on trendjacking and prioritizing original content that’s true to your brand.
Shaping genuine connections and building community can’t be replicated by machines alone, but adding that golden human touch requires time. Leverage AI to handle manual, time-consuming tasks like social media reporting. If you use AI to create spreadsheets and reports, marketers can focus their energy and efforts into developing more impactful content and engagement strategies. Research and identify where to incorporate AI across your teams’ tasks and workflows.
Consumers desire increased transparency and a reduction in superficial activism.
A few years ago, consumers wanted brands to take a stand on important causes. The latest Index shows only 25% of consumers think brands must speak out on causes and news relevant to their values to be memorable on social.
Consumers want brands to share more about their business values and practices, and how their products are made/sourced—but they aren’t necessarily looking for them to “take a stand” on larger issues. Due to the rise of performative activism, some efforts read as disingenuous and inauthentic. In other words, consumers don’t just want brands to talk about their values, they must walk the walk too.
How you can use this insight
The small change in customer habits presents a chance for social media teams to work with other departments besides marketing. Focus on creating content about your company’s logistics, processes, employee policies, and values that will be impactful on social media. Think about including more staff members in your online content, like a series showing the inner workings of the company, or collaborate with top executives to enhance their online image and expertise on platforms like LinkedIn. To further boost these initiatives, incorporate employee advocacy into your content plan.
6. Consumers are heavily influenced by social media reviews
Social media is a living document for social proof—which is increasingly a make-or-break factor for buying decisions.
According to information from the Yale Center for Customer Insights, nearly 90% of customers place as much trust in online reviews as they do in personal recommendations. Additionally, 50% of consumers aged 18-54 seek out online reviews before making the decision to visit a local establishment.
Even the most dazzling, high-budget television ads can’t always deliver what social media offers for free: authenticity. Consumers take to channels like X and review hubs like Yelp and Google Reviews to praise, champion and criticize different products and businesses. Buyers are more likely to trust this unfiltered peer feedback from people who have already tried a product or engaged with a brand.
From a brand perspective, reviews are key for audience growth and reputation management. Every review post, comment and @-mention is either an opportunity to reflect on ways your business can improve—or a glowing testimonial worth sharing more broadly with your audience.
Ways to apply this understanding
Online review management is tricky, but it’s a must for maintaining a positive reputation. It’s hard to distill review data from disparate sources into a quantifiable metric. With a social listening tool like Sprout’s, you can easily analyze the sentiment of messages that mention your brand so you can dig into positive, neutral and negative feedback.
Sprout’s review management capabilities ensure you never miss a message (or a chance to engage) by centralizing reviews from Facebook, Glassdoor, Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Play Store and Apple App Store in one place.
You can also conduct sentiment analysis in Sprout’s Smart Inbox and Reviews feed. Sprout will automatically assign sentiment to messages in your Smart Inbox and Reviews, but you can dig in further by adding filters and custom views.
The relationship between social media and consumer behavior is continually evolving.
Social media leveled the playing field between buyers and brands. Consumers can learn about and engage with brands more easily, and vice versa. Brands can listen to what matters to their audience at the most individual level and help solve problems faster.
Thanks to social, consumers expect much more from the businesses they support. With the right tools, organizations of any size can rise to the challenge.
Interested in gaining knowledge about consumer behavior and social media, as well as the appropriate subsequent actions? Discover more data insights in The Sprout Social Index™.
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Social media has become an integral part of our lives, and its influence on consumer habits is undeniable. With the rise of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, businesses have been able to reach a much wider audience than ever before. Consumers now have access to more information about products and services, and can easily compare prices and features. This has led to a shift in the way people shop, as they are now more likely to research products online before making a purchase.
Social media has also changed the way businesses market their products and services. Companies can now target specific audiences with tailored ads, and use analytics to track how their campaigns are performing. This allows them to make more informed decisions about how to best reach their target consumers. Additionally, businesses can use social media to build relationships with their customers, which can lead to increased loyalty and sales.
Social media has also had an impact on consumer behavior. For example, people are now more likely to share their experiences with products and services with their friends and family. This can lead to increased word-of-mouth marketing, which can be invaluable for businesses. Additionally, people are now more likely to follow influencers on social media, which can influence their purchasing decisions.
Overall, it is clear that social media has had a significant influence on consumer habits. Businesses have been able to reach a wider audience than ever before, and can use analytics to track how their campaigns are performing. Additionally, people are now more likely to share their experiences with products and services with their friends and family, and are more likely to follow influencers on social media. As such, it is essential for businesses to understand the impact of social media on consumer habits in order to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.
Source: sproutsocial.com
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