We live in a world surrounded by ads, that’s clear. With more methods of advertising, come more ways we learn to block them out. We are numb to many types of push marketing techniques, those types of ads and campaigns that saturate and annoy. Thankfully, we also live in a world where social media offers a way to avoid expensive, annoying, futile ad efforts.
With a well done social effort you can connect your brand on a personal level. People will seek out a connection with you via social media versus you seeking the customer’s attention by other means, potentially irritating them. When you pull versus push, word of mouth and the community is on your side. Check out the numbers on pushy marketing and look at the potential for extending brand loyalty with social:

1. $4.26 billion will be spent on social media marketing globally in 2011
2. 43% of Facebook users who “unlike” a brand do so because of too much push marketing
3. 64% of Facebook users have liked a brand on Facebook
4. 25% of social media users are more likely to look into a brand advertising on social media (15% of these users are more likely to purchase from social media advertisers)
5. 41% of users who have unfollowed a brand on Twitter did so because they were over-marketed to
6. 78.6% of consumers have joined a company’s community to get more information on the company
7. 71% of community members say they are more likely to purchase from brand
8. 66% of company community members note that the community has made them more loyal to a brand
9. 63% of corporate community members note that they will recommend brand to friends/family
10. Ford’s 2011 Explorer launch on Facebook generated a 200% greater return than a Super Bowl ad