55% of senior executives point out that social media have impacted and influenced the results of its business operations mainly in terms of listening to the customer is concerned, generate greater commitment and maintain active discussions around the company, brand or product, coinciding with the proportion of those who say that these channels have opened new avenues to pick up new perspectives on the market.

These data come from a report of CMO Council, which also shows that almost half of respondents say that Social Media Marketing as strategy, increased the complexity of their marketing plans and resource allocation, while 20% said that with them has improved the ‘intelligence’ of consumers.

These results largely reflect the conclusions of a related report developed by McKinsey, where he shows that more than half of the executives surveyed believed that social media and new tools had changed the ability of companies to interact and establish new links with customers and potential customers, while 2 out of 10 said that digital technology related to marketing has allowed increased access to data and market prospects.

Retaking the CMO study, 65% of traders noted that leverage social media as ‘listening centers’, with the aim of collecting opinions about preferences, interests and even negative feedback from consumers and customers.

The main topics for the start of talks are the comments on the specific market (51%), distribution of special promotions, coupons and discounts (43%) and gathering competitive intelligence (43%).

The main concern about the present social investments in the media is that they require time and resources that sellers do not usually have. About half also said that they are unable to measure or quantify the ROI or the impact on their brand.

Another important aspect is that more than half of respondents are ‘growing’ their influence on social media channels, while 7% believe that their influence is excellent or very good by 9%.

However, despite the role now played by the media and social networks like speaker and the most powerful tool to hear the views and comments of consumers, most marketers (76%) said that their clients communicate with them via email or customer service lines and call centers (54%), but only 11% said that customers use the Facebook page for this purpose.