When it comes to consumer engagement, you'd be better off dumping Facebook and Twitter in favor of branded communities and email, according to a new report out by Forrester.
The report, titled "Social Relationship Strategies That Work" suggests that brands are seeing diminishing returns on social networks like Facebook and Twitter; as a result, they are wasting time, effort and most importantly money.
Forrester's research revealed that posts from top brands on Twitter and Facebook reach just 2 percent of their followers. When it comes to engagement, it's even worse - just 0.07 percent of followers actually interacted with posts. As a result, Forrester suggested brands stop making Facebook the center of their relationship marketing efforts, and advised brands to reconsider developing and maintaining branded communities and refocusing their email outreach.
"Stop making Facebook the center of your relationship marketing efforts," said Nate Elliott, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. "It's clear that Facebook and Twitter don't offer the relationships that marketing leaders crave," Elliott continues. "Yet most brands still use these sites as the centerpiece of their social efforts-thereby wasting significant financial, technological, and human resources on social networks that don't deliver value."
"It's time for marketers to start building social relationship strategies around sites that can deliver value," he adds.