Facinating Research from Cone LLC: Consumers Overwheming Want Companies to Participate in Social Media

(From the Flickr account of Deborah Schultz www.deborahschultz.com/deblog/2007/11/snackbyte-a-vie.html

Cone, a strategy and communications agency based in Boston, has just released the results of a truly compelling piece of research on consumer attitudes and expectations about how (or indeed if) companies should participate in social media.

Here are some highlights from their press release:

- 93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media

- When asked about specific types of interactions, Americans believe:

---Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
---Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
---Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
---Companies should market to consumers (25%)

I think this is a really powerful set of insights. I was frankly surprised at the depth of feeling about companies being social media participants. Now, if you look at the subpoints, you see that people want companies to help meet their needs, not sell at them. But they want us there. Repeat. They want us there. And we wanna make them happy. So why are so
many companies...not there?

Thanks for reading, and don;t forget to write.