From the Conversation and the University of Buffalo: Customers who connect with a business through social media will go to the business more frequently and contribute more to its bottom line, according to a new study from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
The study, forthcoming in Information Systems Research, found that customers who participate in a firm’s social media visit the business about 5 percent more frequently than those who don’t. The study also found that people who engaged with a business online spent more, adding 5.6 per cent extra to a shop’s bottom line.
The study’s co-author, Ram Bezawada, PhD, assistant professor of marketing in the UB School of Management said the following.
“There have been doubts about the effectiveness of social media for business because the link between a firm’s efforts and the return on investment hasn’t been established. Our results show that when customers engage with a business through social media they contribute about 5.6 percent more to the firm’s bottom line than customers who do not.”
The study compared customer interactions with a US store’s Facebook page to their actual purchases.