A recent survey by Eccolo Media, a San Francisco-based content marketing outfit, provides some insight into just how influential social media may be when it comes to technology purchases. Some of the results suggest that social media may not be as dominant as once thought. The handy infographic (below) shares some of their findings. A few key take-aways that caught my eye include:
- Social can grab your customer's attention, convince them of a "need," but not so great at delivering the conversion. The utility of social media is at it's greatest during the pre-sales and initial-sales phase. The influence of social media sharply declines the closer the customer is to making the purchase.
- Case studies are the kings of the content world with 25% of respondents reporting that they would consult one while making a tech purchase. Check out this part of the infographic for some details about how effective the different elements of your content platform may be.
- Facebook and LinkedIn are in a heated battle to be seen as the go-to social channel when it comes to influencing purchases.
One variable that isn't accounted for in this study is the amount of people who were indeed influenced by vendor posts, but either didn't remember or didn't even know it was a piece of vendor media. Advertising and promoted content is becoming so slick that I would bet that I saw vendor content from Samsung before I decided to buy an S5, but if you asked me if vendor media played a role in my purchase, I probably would have said no. Awareness of vendor media may be an issue here.