Company’s who develop a strong Twitter following online have a better chance at increasing sales according to a recent study conducted by Constant Contact and research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey.
Studying the buying habits of 1,491 consumers ages 18 and older in the United States the study found that people who followed specific brands were more likely to buy that brands products.
The study revealed that 50% of people who follow a brand are more likely to buy that brands product, the study also found that 60% of brand followers recommend the brands they follow to friends.
Twitter’s follower numbers closely mirror a Facebook study that also found that 56% of users on Facebook who like a brands fan page are more likely to recommend that brand to friends while 51% of consumers who like a brand Facebook fan page are more likely to purchase that product.
It should be noted that actually getting Twitter users to follow a brand isn’t the easiest task, only 21% of Twitter users follow brands and in 79% of those cases users follow 10 or less brands.
In even better news for brands, 75% of the people surveyed said they never unfollow brands after making a commitment to them.
Mashable lists the study’s five main reasons for following a brand on Twitter:
- 64%: I am a customer of the company
- 61%: To be the first to know information about the brand
- 48%: To receive discounts and promotions
- 36%: To gain access to exclusive content
- 28%: To receive content/information to retweet and share with others
In the meantime Twitter is still a one-way street in which 84% of users read tweets from brands they follow but only 23% of those Twitter users actually interact with the brands they follow.
Do you follow brands you like on Twitter? How often do you interact with those brands by sending them questions and leaving comments.
