Social media's impact on sales and consumer behavior is complex with many myths and facts to consider. While some short-term advertising and promotional effects can be measured, ROI is difficult to measure for most impacts. Additionally, universal social media models do not exist as effects vary significantly based on product, company, industry, and customer characteristics. The degree of a social media strategy's influence on sales remains an active area of research.

1. Social Media & Consumer Behavior
Kobe, Japan
by
Adam Acar, Associate Professor of Communication
http://emergingmedialab.wordpress.com/about/

2. Myth 1: ROI of social media can be measured
• Fact: All these things can be done through social media: advertising, promotions, SEO, customer support, Market
research, PR. Only some short term effects of advertising, promotions and SEO can be measured. Most of the effects cannot be
measured and not even necessary
ROI can’t be measured ROI can be measured
Customer Support Advertising
•Post-sales support (e.g. •Outcome: 1-Brand
answering customers’ Awareness 2- Brand Image
questions on Facebook) Improvement 3- Sales 4-
•Training customers Building trust (e.g. higher
number of
followers=more trust)
Marketing Research Promotions
•Understand what •Outcome: 1- Sales, 2-
customers want (e.g. Brand awareness
asking fans what kind of
flavor they like, etc.)
Public Relations Search Engine
!!!!How to measure pre-post
•Protect/support brand Optimization
brand image change is
image (e.g. posting about •Outcome: Higher ranking subjective and difficult
brand’s sponsorship on Google, Bing
Other things can also be done through social activities)
media including •Informing publics
-training employees
-impressing shareholders
!!!Not necessary for most of
-tracking competitors
-e-commerce (so far failed) etc… the big brands

3. Myth 2: Social Media drives more traffic than search engines
• Fact 1: Most of these
companies are media
companies (not
ordinary B2C
companies)
• Fact 2: Studies show
that only 2% of online
sales are driven by
social media
• Fact 3: Only 2% of the
people say they’d buy
on Facebook.

4. Myth 3: We can have a universal social media model
• Fact 1: It works differently for high involvement and low
involvement products (because for some products you care what
your friends do and for some products, you don’t)
• Fact 2: It works differently for companies who sell online and who
have brick & mortar stores (because e-commerce companies
heavily rely on SEO and many other companies don’t)
• Fact 3: It works differently for commercial entities and non-
profits (non-profits are perhaps the best beneficiaries of social
media, that’s why there’s a term called “slactivism”)
• Fact 4: It works differently for services and manufactured
products (services tend to focus more on image building and
educating consumers while manufactured products might not
need these)
• Fact 5: It works differently for B2B and B2C companies (many
social networks are built for relationship between people not
other entities)
• Fact 6: It works differently for downloadable apps/software and
other online services (Facebook has the best success rate for apps
because they are immediately available and they are part of the
platform)
• Fact 7: It works differently for local and nationwide brands
(getting personal with a small number of fans vs. servicing the
needs of a large number audience)
• Fact 8: It works differently for small-mid-size companies and big
brands (need for getting new customers vs. need for increasing
repeat customers)
• Fact 9: It works differently for industries with high consumer
loyalty rates and low consumer loyalty rates.
• Fact 10: It works differently for products geared towards women
and men.

5. Not a surprise here: First time
mothers are asking their friends about
strollers on Facebook. Would they ask
their friends about which chewing
gum to choose???
Source
http://mashable.com/2011/12/18/social-
consumers-infographic/

6. Myth 4: Social Media always has a positive impact on sales
• Fact: No. This study shows that it has a negative impact for 12% of the users
and zero impact for the 48%, especially when it comes to the fashion industry.
Source: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6185.html
I don’t want to
wear what
everyone is
wearing!

7. Myth 5: Facebook is the best social media tool to drive sales
• Fact: This may not be true. These studies indicated that Twitter is better to
attract new customers:
• http://www.webknots.com/facebook-vs-twitter-which-is-better-sales-optimizer-for-brands/
• http://www.exacttarget.com/uploadedfiles/resources/SFF6_Future_Final.pdf
• http://asiajin.com/blog/2012/04/02/a-summary-of-the-latest-studies-about-japan-social-media/
I am cool…

8. Myth 6: People follow brands in social media to get information
• Fact: This is not true. Most of the time people follow brands because they are
either a) current customers b) interested in getting discounts.
• http://www.kullin.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/chart-why-follow-brands-twitter.png
• http://allfacebook.com/infographic-why-we-follow-brands-on-facebook_b49585
• http://www.kullin.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/why-we-follow-brands-on-twitter.jpg
• http://mashable.com/2011/10/20/twitter-brands-purchase-intent/

9. Myth 7: Consumers are interested in engaging with brands in
social media
• Fact: Nope. Only 12% of 18-24 year olds and 6% of 12-17 year olds are
interested in friending brands in social media.
• Source: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/young-users-hating-brands-125949

10. Myth 8: We can measure the effects of social media by
Likes, shares, comments, retweets, coupons redeemed, applications downloaded, photos/videos uploaded/tagged, photos pinned, campaigns
participated, so on…
• Fact: No scientific proof (yet) that more likes/shares/comments equal to more
sales (Remember the problem of causality? Do likes drive sales or do sales drive
likes?). Most of the companies report using social media because their competitors
are using it.
≠

11. Myth 9: Social Media Ads are more effective because they are
based on Open graph & Interest graph
• Fact: Facebook ads have even a lower click-through rate than avg. banner ads
(.1% vs .051%).

12. Myth 10: Social media has no impact on sales
• Fact: This is perhaps is not true either. For instance according to this study …”
“Researchers surveyed customers of Dessert Gallery (DG), a popular Houston-based café chain. Prior to the study, DG did not have a Facebook
presence. Surveys of more than 1,700 respondents over a three-month period found that the company's Facebook fans made 36 percent more visits
to DG's stores each month, spent 45 percent more of their eating-out dollars at DG, spent 33 percent more at DG's stores, had 14 percent higher
emotional attachment to the DG brand and had 41 percent greater psychological loyalty toward DG--compared to typical Dessert Gallery customers.”
Source: Science 2.0
• http://www.science20.com/news_articles/how_effective_facebook_marketing_very_new_survey_says