I realize that preaching about the importance of social media to businesses is pretty redundant. By now, buy-in to social media marketing is near ubiquitous, but I still have found that many companies struggle when quantifying the value they can achieve through the strategic use of social media.

I may not have a silver bullet response to help everyone understand the actual quantitative value of social media marketing, but what I do have is incredibly compelling stats to give you a better understanding on how just important social platforms can be to your business.

1. 91% Of People Have Gone Into A Store Because Of An Online Experience (Source: Marketing Land)

This sounds like a crazy statistic, but think about it, it intuitively makes sense. Think about your own behavior as a consumer, you most likely spend a great deal of time researching the products and services you’re interested in online before making any purchase decision. And really, why wouldn’t you? With a whole world of information at your fingertips you would be a fool to not research purchases online, read reviews, look up prices and get a sense of the company you would be doing business with.

A website and social media that is up to date and provides all the information your current and prospective consumers are looking for you are going to attract buyers compared to a site where a consumer can find little to no information.

2. 78% Of Consumers Say That The Posts Made By Companies On Social Media Influence Their Purchases (Source: Forbes)

What this statistic shows us is that you truly have opportunity to sway consumer purchase decisions through the content your business creates and publishes on social media.

This mean that’s it is absolutely critical that your business consistently publishes killer content. A result of the inherently fleeting nature of social media content is that you need to be refreshing your content streams on a regular and ongoing basis.

Wear your resolution on your wrist. #justdoit pic.twitter.com/fM6TWPPzrg

— NikeFuel (@NikeFuel) January 1, 2014

This does not mean go out and publish anything. Your content should still be highly valuable by your existing and prospective consumers to ensure that when they decide to check out your business online, that they are presented with the absolute best you have to offer.

3. 80% Of Business Are Not Passionate (Source: Invesp Blog)

Business is built on relationships. The more people feel they know and like you, the more you will succeed. Your web presence must show you are passionate. It’s the brands that are the most human, add value and care about their customers that succeed. 

ayyyyyyy @TacoBell pic.twitter.com/eB2cfdIweZ

— lauren♡ (@delatorrelauren) January 18, 2014

4. 89% Of Consumers Conduct Their Research Using Search Engines (Source: PR Newswire)

What ranks incredibly high in search engine results? Well, it’s pretty obvious, social media platforms including, Facebook, Twitter, and of course Google+ and YouTube. On a side note, it is worth adding that properly written blog posts tend to rank quite highly as well.

Social media properties often land on the first page of search results for businesses and brands of all sizes. You have a tremendous oppurtinity to impress information seeking consumers on your social media properties when they are conducting research for a purchase, so take advantage of this and ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward.

5. 72% Of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations (Source: Search Engine Journal)

This stat shows that 72% of consumers trust a complete stranger online just as much as people they know when it comes to making a purchase decision.  Apply this knowledge and create a strategy to encourage consumers to leave reviews on your social media properties.

When a biz sends out a post regarding a product or new service those who actually view the post and/or like are actually a large part of the consumers who actually go onto buy the product or service.

So next time you go to post, keep the thought that the next ten people who view this post, four of them are going to make a purchase. So before you go and just post just anything, create a post that will capture a consumers attention and leave them feeling that they must have the product or service your biz is offering.

These stats are absolutely amazing, if they don’t get your enthusiasm jumpstarted and dedication to creating killer content and having a meaningful dialogue with your social media audience, you need to check your pulse.

Seriously, are you alive in there?

Today’s world is run with social media and all these savvy consumers are looking to make informed purchase decisions, which means they’re tapping into all their available resources.

It is so important to continue as a business to adapt to the needs of your consumers. This means finding new ways to enhance value propositions, develop dialogues, forge real relationship and build and sustain levels of trust that will ultimately influence their purchase decisions.

Can you attribute sales to your business’ social media activity? What value have you experienced through social media marketing? What value does your brand offer your social media audience?  Leave your answers in the comments below