Executive summary and results

The results of this social media study generated some eye-opening insights into how social media is used by retail brands with ecommerce solutions. In the next few chapters we delve into those results and offer some practical hints and tips on the steps retailers can take to really make the most of social media for.

Here we give an overview of the key findings:

Some form of social media is common

Social media is being used in some way by 42% of the retailers assessed, although given the high  levels of attention that social media sites attract, and their very low entry cost, we expected this number to be higher.

Whilst some kind of social media presence was found, it seems retailers are reluctant to harness this potential for their ecommerce solutions and expand  their activity, with only 12% using more than one form of social media channel to communicate  with their target audiences.

Twitter v Facebook

Although Facebook has been around for two years longer than Twitter, and has a vastly greater  user base (350m users, compared to Twitter’s 18m), the percentage of brands using these  networks was similar, with Twitter taking a slight lead (24% of brands assessed had a Facebook  presence and 26% were on Twitter).

Both networks have their advantages, and in most cases a presence on both would be advisable.  Twitter is simpler by nature, which makes it potentially easier for businesses to get going with it  quickly, and which may account for the slight prference for this network amongst the brands we  assessed.

However, Facebook should not be neglected, particularly by B2C businesses, as it offers an opportunity to engage with real fans of your brand, and with such a large user base and integrated advertising, has great potential value for marketing and and traffic driving for ecommerce solutions.

Lack of integration between retailer websites and social media

A surprisingly high number of brands that had a social media presence on an external channel failed to publicise this on their website. Around three in four (77%) of those with a Twitter account failed to link to it from their website, and the same was true for 67% of those with a Facebook page.

Blogging is neglected

Only 8% of retailers had a blog on their website, making it the least used of all the main social media channels we assessed.

Of those who blogged only 38% posted daily and the blog was mainly used for product updates  (50%) or company news (50%). Smaller retailers (10%) were more likely to blog than larger  brands (6%).

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