You Are Expected To Have A Social Media Presence

"93% of online Americans say companies should have a social media presence and 85% believe these companies also should be interacting with consumers through social media."

That was the lead sentence from the news item, Americans Expect Companies to Have Social Media Presence, from Marketing Charts today. This information was taken from the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study. Here are some other statistics from this report:

• Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%).
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%).
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%).
• Companies should market to consumers (25%).

Overall, this report gives a healthy thumb’s up to Social Media and how it works with Marketing:

“All of this is great news for marketers,” said Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone. “Men and younger consumers are traditionally the most challenging to reach, while the highest-income households are typically very desirable; here they are saying ‘come market to us and interact with us online.’ This is really a license to put more energy and resources into this medium and do it effectively.”

That comment was based on some of these findings:

• 60% of Americans interact with companies using social media (one in four interact more than once per week).
• 56% feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they interact via social media.
• One-third of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (age 18-34) believe  that companies should actively market to them via social networks.

Cone is a "strategy and communications agency engaged in building brand trust" and is part of the Omnicon Group. And the survey was "conducted September 11-12, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation among 1,092 adults comprising 525 men and 567 women 18 years of age and older."

Does this sound a little too rosy to you?