These actions make brands memorable on social media

A new study reveals how brands can stick out to consumers in their social media promotions.

According to the “2023 Sprout Social Index, Edition XIX, Breakthrough,” slightly more than half (51%) of surveyed U.S. and U.K. consumers think the most memorable action a brand can take on social media is simply providing a response.

Meanwhile, one in four respondents think speaking out about social issues and causes makes a brand memorable on social media. Respondents are primarily following brands on social media to stay up-to-date on products and services (68%), Interestingly, 53% of respondents say they are using social media more today than during the peak COVID-19 pandemic era.

More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents place equal value on brands on social media prioritizing customer support and responding quickly to their needs, with seven in 10 (69%) both expecting a response within the same day of reaching out and expecting a personalized response (70%).

Social marketers turn to AI

The survey also asked social media marketing professionals in the U.S. and U.K. about current trends in their industry. Eight in 10 (81%) say artificial intelligence (AI) has already had a positive impact on their work, citing more time for creativity (78%) and increased efficiency (73%) as the top benefits AI provides.

In order to meet this demand for timely responses and streamline customer care on social, close to half (47%) of surveyed marketers plan to use AI and automation tools to handle basic customer inquiries at scale.

Additional key marketing findings from the 2023 Index include:

• Surveyed marketers anticipate AI playing a role in analyzing social data (68%), content creation (66%), social media advertising targeting and campaign targeting (65%), and building chatbots (63%) in 2024.
• On the flip side, surveyed marketers rank job displacement as the top concern when it comes to AI. Furthermore, one in three are concerned with maintaining a balance between AI and human touch in social media interactions.
• Engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments are the most regularly tracked metrics among all marketing respondents (78%).
• Almost two in three (64%) marketing respondents havesocial media teams are organized by specific social media platforms or networks, with one team member being responsible for TikTok, another for Instagram, etc.
• The other most common team structures are based on different audience functions (48%) like community management or customer support, and distribution roles (44%) such as content creation, video production, and publishing.

[Read more: How popular is social shopping?]

Cint conducted research online in the U.S. and U.K. by Cint on behalf of Sprout Social. Participants included 1,817 consumers who follow at least five brands on social media. Additionally, 903 full-time social marketers involved in managing their brand’s social media strategy were surveyed from a cross-section of U.S. and U.K. businesses. Both surveys were conducted from June 12-23, 2023. Relationships between variables collected were analyzed using parametric statistics for statistical significance.