Buying behaviors gaining momentum among the socially inclined

By Robert Wheatley

According to a recent Marketing Daily article on holiday shopping trends, social media engagement will top search engines and shopper review sites this year for bargain hunting. “Social media is influencing search behavior and affecting the purchases a consumer makes,” reports Oneupweb, a Traverse-City, Michigan research firm who compiled the report.

The story goes on to reveal that in a recent Penn State study, one in five tweets now mention a specific brand or service. While the Luxury Institute found among high net worth households, nearly one in five social network users also belong to a social shopping site.

Apparently we like conversations in tandem with our shopping experiences…

Stop pushing and start engaging

Once more we see ample evidence of the changes brands and businesses must make to go to market and communicate successfully. Social media and commerce are colliding. And this is also a different world.

Even so remnants of the old theory of marketing still persist, especially the view that brands can imprint preference and interest in consumers’ minds by confronting them with “persuasive” messages. For a very long time the language of marketing was about Targeting, Disrupting, Surrounding and Converting. Push. Push. Push.

Now the lexicon of effective brand outreach moves to Conversation, Community, Trust and Engagement. On the surface it sounds a bit squishy. In fact at first blush all of this may feel somewhat less like the command and control conditions of yore. Well, yes, it is. Brands now have to earn permission for a relationship based on their ability to mine greater meaning, value and purpose in the consumer’s lifestyle.

Here’s the question you need to ask: what relevant lifestyle interests and passions do my consumer’s participate in, and how can I align my brand to help and enable them to realize, learn more, build on and experience these passions?

Where you invest is where you believe traction will come from…

Are you spending and planning to build your presence in social media channels, or is this simply bolted on to the marketing mix as a Facebook page or Twitter account? Guess what, social media users want and expect you to engage them. Yes, you’ve been invited to participate.

Cone Inc. has just released a study that reports 78 percent of new media users expect to interact with companies and brands on social platforms. Thirty-seven percent say they communicate with brands at least once a week in this channel. And by the way, they also see this as a two-way proposition: consumers now think they can influence brand decisions through voicing their opinions in new media.

Hey it’s the fourth quarter and a time when next year’s plans are in the making or at least haven’t been launched. Is it time to take a more serious look at social media strategy in the mix?

Absolutely. And now you know social sites are gaining momentum during the year’s most serious sales period, that time when many businesses make or break their numbers – the holidays.

What does this mean for your business? What do you think?