The head of Vancouver-based social media management firm Hootsuite says the vast majority of businesses with an online presence are not fully levering social media as a revenue-boosting tool.
“Most organizations don’t fully appreciate the value of what social media can drive to their top line,” Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky told BNN Bloomberg in a Wednesday interview.
“In our research, almost 95 per cent of businesses and organizations are on social (media), and yet 75 per cent of them don’t know how to tie it to impact. Those stats are just wild when you think about the nature of the whole population being in one place.”
Novoselsky said that social media presents a unique opportunity for businesses to speak to and hear from their customers directly, noting that five billion people use social media platforms for an average of nearly three hours each day.
She added that as a company that manages organizations’ online presence and strategy, Hootsuite is “sitting in the centre of what is a real seismic shift” when it comes to how social media connects businesses and customers.
“What social (media) has done for businesses in the last 10 years is going to be categorically different than what it will do for the next 10 years,” Novoselsky said.
She said Hootsuite “leaned in” to social media optimization with its recent acquisition of Talkwalker, a consumer intelligence company that helps businesses assess things like PR campaigns to gain a better understanding of what’s being said about them online.
“For us it’s just a next step in the shift we’re seeing with our customers … building a relationship requires not just the action of one-way talking at a customer, but also the ability to listen,” Novoselsky said.
“And so one of the things that we’re seeing is really the shift from social media management into social media performance … we really leaned in and are leaning in to this shift that we’re seeing with our consumers and our customers.”
