Marketing firms lead social network customer grabs

Media and marketing firms are more likely to use social networks to find new customers than their counterparts in some other sectors and the numbers doing so are well above the average. The results were revealed in research carried out by Regus, which found that 68% of media and marketing firms use social networks to find new customers.

This was significantly higher than the national average of 40% of businesses that are successfully winning new customers through social networking activity.

Looking at other sectors, 50% of ICT businesses used social media for new customers, while 28% of healthcare and medical firms did so and just 26% in the banking, finance and insurance industries.

The study also showed over three quarters (80%) of Australian media and marketing businesses believe that marketing must now use social networks, in addition to traditional marketing techniques, to be successful. This compared to just 54% of healthcare and medicine and 60% of consultancy and services industries.

71% of Australian media and marketing firms encourage employees to join business social networks compared to 70% of ICT businesses, 41% of banking, finance and insurance sectors and just 33% manufacturing and production businesses. 68% of Australian businesses believe that without a social media component, marketing campaigns are not as effective.

William Willems, Regus regional VP ANZ and South East Asia said: “Particularly in Australia where a recent report by comScore reveals that social networking accounts for 1 of every 5 minutes spent online in Australia, more and more companies are leveraging this channel to increase the loyalty of existing customers, and as a successful acquisition tool.”

www.bandt.com.au