 |
People are spending more time than ever on social media, according to a new study from cloud-based social media management platform Sprout Social, and while a focus on issues and causes may be top of mind for many brands when it comes to social media priorities, that isn’t necessarily the case for many consumers.
In the latest edition of the Sprout Social Index, more than 1,800 consumers and 900 marketers in the US and UK weighed in with their opinions, and more than half of them (53 percent) said that their social media usage “has been higher over the last two years than in the previous two years.”
What drives them to follow a brand on social? Only about one in five (21 percent) said “because their values or mission aligns with mine.” Other, more prosaic concerns were considerably more popular. Top of the list: “To stay informed about new products or services,” which was cited by almost seven in 10 (68 percent) respondents. “Access to exclusive deals or promotions” came in next at 46 percent.
 |
Another big plus is when customers feel like brands are listening to them. 51 percent of respondents said that the “most memorable brands” on social media are the ones that respond to them. More than three quarters (76 percent) said that they notice and appreciate it when customer support is a priority for a brand, and nearly as many (70 percent) expect that support to take the form of “personalized responses to customer service needs.”
They also want those responses to be timely. Only 12 percent of respondents to this year’s survey said that response time does not matter to them. For 16 percent, a response “within minutes” is expected and another 23 percent want to hear back “within 1-2 hours.”
The marketers surveyed indicated that they expect advances in technology to help them boost levels of customer care. More than half (54 percent) expect to use “customer self-service tools and resources like FAQs, forms and chatbots” to help them scale customer care on social media. They also say they plan to employ advanced social media management tools (50 percent) as well as artificial intelligence and automation (47 percent) to handle basic customer inquiries and tasks.
In general, marketers seem bullish about the prospects of AI as a tool. More than eight in 10 (81 percent) said that AI has already had a positive impact on their work. In the coming year, they expect to use AI for such tasks as analyzing social media data, content creation and sentiment analysis.
That does not mean there aren’t some reservations. 49 percent said they saw job displacement or reduced human involvement in social media management as potential dangers.
The 2023 Sprout Social Index was conducted online between June 12 and 23.
Most people are willing to trust AI—as long as it stays in its own lane. That’s the takeaway from Mission North’s “The New Rules of Trust," a report that looks at how the public evaluates corporate reputation and at what brands need to do to maintain credibility and relevance.
Executives are moving faster, embracing flexibility and making decisions with urgency even in the face of uncertainty, a new study from Padilla finds.
The global economy is threatened by a wave of insularity that is cutting people off from the world beyond their immediate environment and making them more unlikely to listen to—or do business with—people from other countries or with opinions different from theirs, according to Edelman’s 2026 Trust Barometer.
While the danger of being on the president’s bad side is seen as a major source of concern for brands, the potential negative effects of artificial intelligence pose an even greater reputational threat, according to Global Situation Room report.
While predictions of economic improvement in the coming year from corporate and financial decision makers are down slightly from last year’s numbers, the overall outlook is still strongly positive, according to a new survey from Teneo.
