Independent interactive marketing agency Rosetta released a study today that shows that 59% of 100 leading retailers have fan pages on Facebook. This is a testament to how social media is truly consuming the way businesses market themselves.
“These results support what we’re seeing in our day-to-day client work, which is that we’ve reached a tipping point with Facebook among retailers,” says Adam Cohen, partner with Rosetta’s consumer goods and retail practice. “Social media sites continue to be an important source of community connection, and savvy retailers are reaping the benefits of Facebook’s rapid extension into new demographics, such as Gen-X and seniors.”
I would expect the percentage to be much higher this time next year, unless Facebook loses market share to a competitor. Of course, with the rise of data portability and the plan to standardize activity feeds, it may not matter what social network businesses choose to have a presence on as much as whether they have a presence at all (which will likely still be an issue for many businesses).
Facebook along with Google, MySpace, and a number of others are already working on reaching such a standard. Nevertheless, the impact social media marketing has on a business will continue to be influenced by that business’s individual social practices.
“It’s important that retailers don’t just slap up a page because everyone is talking about Facebook,” says Cohen. “An effective Facebook presence requires that you carefully consider what your customers are looking for, what you would like to communicate, and what role a fan page should play in your overall online strategy. If you take all of these into account, it can be effective in building customer loyalty.” These principles are certainly not limited to Facebook.
Rosetta’s study was originally conducted in April, and then updated in September. Within the time period between those two, 29 of the retailers surveyed added Facebook pages, including Best Buy, Toys “R” Us, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart. If that’s not an indication that companies are starting to take social media more seriously, I don’t know what is. Maybe this.
