A recent Gallup Poll caught some extra press attention claiming social media does not influence consumers while missing the entire point of social media and how it actually does make a positive impact for small businesses and big brands alike.
Their numbers are right-on correct. Their questions and follow-on conclusions are both out of context and dead wrong.
A Gallup Poll on social media? More than just a few flaws.
Of course, Gallup has been wrong many many times in the past even with clear cut binary decisions like the 2012 Presidential election. In this case, Gallup goes even further off course with a more complicated subject such as social media’s impact on influencing consumers and misses the whole point of social media like, well, like an 84 year old company that conducted part of it’s research on Social Media via snail mail survey forms. Seriously. Even I am at a loss for a clever analogy.
In their poll they are asking the wrong questions.
“How much does social media influence your buying decisions?”
People are not going to admit to being influenced by any form of promotion or advertising. It’s like asking if telemarketers are the preferred way to learn about a product. How many people are going to raise their hand with a resounding yes to that question?
The real key finding in the report is the confirmation that at 94% of the population, just about everyone is active on social media. The number is off the charts compared to other mediums.
So if your customers and prospects are there – that means you should be too. But not necessarily in a hard sales mode – that’s not the purpose nor power of social media. Rather be in a conversation mode with an opportunity to learn and listen. Social media is an opportunity to be invited to tell your story and add value to the conversation which, in turn, builds loyalty and interest.
I’m not the only one scratching my head over Gallup – the question is; what relevance does this old school survey company have in a world that moves at lightening speed? Gallup is presenting data that’s over a year old (some of it from 2012!), in the world of online media and marketing that’s nearly as bad as trundling out your betamax player to show home movies.
Buried in the Gallup summary is this obvious point:
“Companies that engage their customers — by providing exceptional service and a pleasurable in-store experience — will, in turn, drive those customers to interact with them on social media. Simply promoting products and services on Facebook or Twitter is unlikely to lead to sales.”
Exactly guys – you have it right on. And social media enables businesses and brands to extend and amplify this engagement like no other medium available. Small Business, in particular has an extraordinary advantage; we don’t measure our progress in millions of cases sold, we measure our progress in customers served and revenues increased, social media gives us an ability to do that in a way never possible before.
So there you have it – they got some of it right while highlighting all the wrongs. Lesson? We sometimes see what we are looking for and miss out on what’s actually there.
Thanks for being part of our team – let’s go out today and make a difference!
– Mike Wolpert
