Social Media for Business: 31 Stats & Anecdotes

There have been a several studies highlighting the rapid adoption of Social Media Marketing. Often this data helps make the case for Social Media investment in your organization. We’ve pulled together a list of 31 stats and anecdotes that caught our attention. Because of our focus on Twitter, these may have a slight bend to Twitter for Business, but cover the general trends in Social Media adoption.

Slide Format for Easy Viewing:

Full List with Sources:

1. Social Media spending is expected to increase from $716M in 2008 to $3.1B in 2014, a 34% CAGR.
2. That 34% CAGR means that Social Media spending is growing faster than any other interactive marketing category (more).
3. In the near-term, 86% of Marketers plan to increase Social Media budgets in 2010 and 13% are planning to keep the same level of budget (more).
4. Pepsi dropped TV advertising for the 2010 Super Bowl. Instead, they’re investing in a $20mm Social Media campaign. After 23 years of Super Bowl ads. (more)
5. Best Buy has over 2,500 employees helping customers via Twitter as part of their Twelpforce initiative.
6. In fact, Best Buy even purchased TV ads to drive awareness for their Twitter initiative. (Traditional media as the supporting channel and Social Media as the core channel)
7. Comcast has at least 11 full-time employees dedicated to customer service and support via Social Media.
8. Dell has attributed over $6.5M in revenue directly to Twitter (more)
9. 99% of online retailers plan to have a Facebook page by 2011 and 91% plan to have a Twitter page (more).
10. Social Media played a major role in 2009 Holiday Shopping – 28% of US shoppers say Social Media has influenced their purchases (more)
11. JetBlue website visitors who also visited Twitter in July 2009 were 35% more likely to complete a booking than visitors who did not visit Twitter (more)
12. In 2009, 91% of Inc. 500 companies report using at least one Social Media tool, compared with 77% of companies surveyed in 2008.
13. In 2009 52% of the Inc. 500 uses Twitter, the 2nd most commonly used Social Media channel. It wasn’t even present in 2007 (more).
14. 53% of the Fortune 500 have at least one active Twitter account
15. 57% of the Fortune 100 have at least one active Twitter account
16. And this is just this beginning… 13% of the Fortune 100 have at least two active Twitter accounts
17. 83% of CMOs are tracking their number of fans in Social Media.
18. 72% of CMOs plan to attach revenue expectations to their Social Media spending in 2010
19. 81% of CMOs plan to link up to 10% of their company’s revenues to Social Media investment next year, up from just 44% in 2009 (more).
20. 88% of execs at US non-profit organizations are currently experimenting with Social Media (more)
21. Small Businesses are catching on too… 68% will increase their Social Media marketing efforts in the next year (more).
22. ~56% of Twitter users say they use the micro-blogging & communication service for business purposes (more).
23. Social Media usage is taking hold at both B2B and B2C business… 81% of B2B and 57% of B2C businesses maintain company-related profiles on social networks
24. Over 40% of people have “friended” a brand on Facebook or Myspace (more).
25. 20 percent of tweets are about products such as invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives (more).
26. 46% of Facebook users say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook.
27. 44% of Twitter users have recommended a product (more).
28. 58% of people said if they had tweeted about a bad experience, they would like the company to respond to their comment (more).
29. Foursquare’s estimated valuation is $6mm (more).
30. Twitter’s estimated valuation is $1B (more).
31. Facebook’s estimated valuation is $10B (more).

Related Articles:
Twitter for Consumer Businesses
Twitter for Non-Profits
WTF is Social Media?