IBM recently did a study with 1,700 different CEO’s in 64 countries to discuss changes in the way business is conducted these days. The topic of discussion was how they engage with their customers. Each was asked how they go about engaging with their customers today and how they see that changing in 3-5 years. Unsurprisingly social media marketing was a highlight of the study.
In the chart on the right the top line represents where these businesses are today and the bottom line represents where they expect to be in 3-5 years. At the moment social media comes in at dead last but, as much of the current data these days suggests, businesses know it’s important and expect to be using it more and more in coming years. In the next few years the CEO’s in this study expect social media to jump to the second most popular form on interaction between companies and their customers, second only to face-to-face interactions.
On the other side traditional media takes a huge hit. The study showed that today traditional media like TV and newspapers comprise 39% of companies engagement while in a few years CEO’s believe it will drop significantly to only around 15%. Even with social media beginning to take a larger role in business interaction CEO’s still say that personalization is important. The believe that technology should be used to facilitate a better and more productive engagement with our customers but not replace face-to-face interaction all together.
Need help developing a social media marketing strategy? Having trouble figuring out how to best engage with your customers in the digital realm? Contact Wikimotive for a free evaluation and some tips on how to get on the right track.