RSS
EY Romania Study: Few industries use social media for marketing
Tourism, food industry and retail are the best-selling industries on social media; in 2015, 13 percent more companies used social media for networking, and 6pct more for competition analysis, according to a study released on Friday by EY Romania.
The use of social media for recruiting advanced from 34pct in 2014 to 36pct last year, while sales using social media declined by 1pct, and customer relations by 6pct.
"Few industries use social media for marketing. Although communication is the main purpose of social networks, irrespective of the industry, the goal of selling through social media is present especially in tourist companies (100pct of respondents), followed by retail and the food industry (60pct each). For recruiting, 56pct of respondents in the banking industry use social networks; advertising and media companies are next with 35pct, and the IT&C industry is third with 30pct.
Social media is used for marketing especially by small companies with less than 50 employees (42pct of respondents) and by companies with 501-1000 employees (38pct). Larger companies with more than 1000 employees rather use social networks for recruiting.
Company size is irrelevant when it comes to communication and marketing through social media. Awareness and market exposure are the main benefits of social networks, with 53pct of respondents mentioning sales opportunities and 37pct an actual increase of incomes (3pct up from 2014). A smaller proportion of respondents - nearly half of them, however - appreciate the role of social networks in customer loyalty.
About 64pct of the companies say social media are efficient in generating sales leads, while 30pct are unsure about it, and a small proportion disagree.
EY is a global professional services company operating in 150 countries.