TM

Edition XVII: Accelerate

Introduction

Contents
3 5 13 18
Introduction Stand out from the crowd Stay ahead of the social Break through the social
consumer ceiling

21 22
Grow faster with social Methodology

Sprout Social IndexTM XVII: Accelerate

Introduction

The future is bright Consumer’s social media usage is Increase in social media use over
on the rise the past year, by generation
for social media

71
78%
Consumers, especially members of
Generation Z and Millennials, are spending
more time on social than ever before.
Generation Z

77%
Millennials
Seventy-one
percent of consumers say
they found themselves 75%
using social media more Generation X
in the past year

54%
Baby Boomers

Sprout Social IndexTM XVII: Accelerate sproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial 3

Introduction

Facebook remains Platforms consumers use Where consumers follow brands

a top contender 87% Facebook 78% Facebook

When asked which platforms they use, 74% YouTube 57% Instagram
consumers pointed to Facebook, YouTube
68% Instagram 47% YouTube
and Instagram as their top three. Those same
three platforms also top the list of where 50% Twitter 36% Twitter
consumers follow brands. 42% Snapchat 22% TikTok
37% Pinterest 20% Pinterest
36% TikTok 20% Snapchat
29% LinkedIn 16% LinkedIn
28% Whatsapp 13% Whatsapp
21% Reddit 9% Reddit
15% Twitch 8% Twitch
11% Yelp 4% Tumblr
10% Tumblr 4% Yelp
10% TripAdvisor 4% TripAdvisor
3% Clubhouse 3% Clubhouse

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 Section 1

Stand out from

the crowd

Sprout Social IndexTM XVII: Accelerate sproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial 5

Stand out from the crowd

Marketers need to
listen to the noise
before they can cut
through it
Nestled within the conversations and
interactions consumers have with their friends,
93 90
Ninety-three
percent of marketers acknowledge
that social media accelerated
competition within their industry
Ninety
percent of marketers agree data
from social enables them to stay
ahead of their competitors
family and brands are the insights marketers
need to maintain their competitive edge.

88 86
88 86
Eighty-eight
Eighty-eight
percent of marketers believe their
social media strategy positively
percent of marketers
influences believe
their bottom linetheir
Eighty-six
Eighty-six
percent of marketers say they use
competitor insights from social to
percent
identify of marketers
new business say they use
opportunities
social media strategy positively competitor insights from social to
influences their bottom line identify new business opportunities

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Stand out from the crowd

Social gives away How social data informs marketers’ understanding of their competitors by rank

a competitor’s
next move
1 Tells them the strength of customers’ brand loyalty
When it comes to competitor insights, social
data reveals the strength of a competing
brand’s customer loyalty as well as the 1 Reveals strengths and weaknesses of competitors’ products or services
strengths and weaknesses of their offerings.

3 Highlights where their brand can differentiate from competitors

4 Informs their understanding of competitors’ customer service efforts

5 Reveals competitors’ share of voice

6 Provides insights into competitors’ next moves

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Stand out from the crowd

Know where you How social data informs marketers’ understanding of their customers by rank

stand with your

customers
1 Shows them how customers use their products or services
Unlike other marketing channels, social offers
marketers a window into consumers’ real
feelings toward brands and why they follow 2 Shows what customers dislike about their brand
certain company pages over others. For
example: 53% of consumers follow brands
on social to learn about new products and 3 Tells them what customers like about their brand
services.

4 Provides insight into what customers expect from brands in the future

5 Shows what trends customers are interested in

6 Enables them to get to know their customers on a personal level

7 Tells them what kind of social content resonates with customers

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Stand out from the crowd

Get to know your Social platforms marketers Social platforms consumers

currently use want brands to use more
audience on a
personal level 83% Facebook 60% Facebook
Connecting with your target audience,
77% Instagram 48% Instagram
however, starts with getting to know what 57% YouTube 41% YouTube
makes them tick.
52% Twitter 30% Twitter
38% LinkedIn 21% Snapchat
36% Snapchat 21% TikTok
34% TikTok 19% Pinterest
28% Whatsapp 17% LinkedIn
21% Pinterest 17% Whatsapp
21% Google My Business 11% Reddit
16% Reddit 10% Google My Business

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Stand out from the crowd

Visual content is Types of content marketers say are most valuable for social goals

a must-have for
achieving social
goals
Marketers’ goals for social remain largely
54% 53% 30%
unchanged from 2020, with increasing brand
Video Images Text-based
posts
awareness (58%) and increasing community
engagement (41%) taking the top spots. As
visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok
become more popular, investing in visual
content will be a priority.

26% 25%
Stories Live video

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Stand out from the crowd

Published video content by network

Facebook posts Instagram posts Tweets Facebook posts Instagram posts Tweets

Advertising & Marketing 14% 13% 5% Media & Entertainment 23% 21% 8%

Automotive 16% 12% 6% Nonprofit 14% 11% 4%

Banking 11% 11% 4% Real Estate 12% 8% 4%

Consumer Goods 16% 13% 5% Recruiting & Staffing 9% 11% 4%

Education 14% 10% 5% Retail 14% 10% 4%

Financial Services 12% 11% 4% Internet & Tech 10% 11% 3%

Food & Beverage 12% 9% 4% Sports, Leisure & Recreation 18% 14% 7%

Health, Wellness & Fitness 15% 12% 5% Travel & Tourism 12% 8% 4%

Legal 8% 7% 3%

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Stand out from the crowd

Strong customer What consumers think makes a brand What marketers think makes a brand
best in class on social best in class on social
service is the
hallmark of an 47% They offer strong customer service 48% They engage their audience
exceptional brand
46% They engage their audience 45% They create memorable content
on social
44% They are transparent 42% They are transparent
When asked what makes a brand best-in-class
on social, the number one response from
39% They create memorable content 37% They tell a compelling story
consumers was strong customer service yet
marketers cited audience engagement as the
distinguishing factor. 33% They have a distinct personality 37% They are the first to join a new social network

28% They tell a compelling story 35% They offer strong customer service

23% They are the first to join a new social network 31% They have a distinct personality

18% They set trends 19% They leverage pop culture

17% They leverage pop culture 14% They set trends

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 Section 2

Stay ahead of the

social consumer

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Stay ahead of the social consumer

Responsiveness Average inbound messages & response rates by industry

is core to social
Total inbound Daily response Total inbound Daily response
customer service messages per day rate to messages messages per day rate to messages

Advertising & Marketing 68 47% Media & Entertainment 139 36%

Don’t underestimate the ramifications of
poor customer service. Forty-four percent
of consumers will unfollow a brand on
Automotive 25 30% Nonprofit 135 37%
social because of poor service, putting
a damper on brands’ growth goals. Banking 59 28% Real Estate 7 58%

Consumer Goods 38 75% Recruiting & Staffing 36 35%

Education 15 37% Retail 62 72%

Financial Services 43 26% Internet & Tech 36 48%

Food & Beverage 19 74% Sports, Leisure & Recreation 31 41%

Health, Wellness & Fitness 33 71% Travel & Tourism 43 56%

Legal 31 24%

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Stay ahead of the social consumer

Social gives Consumers’ preferred channel for Consumers’ preferred channel for
sharing feedback about a product reaching out with a customer service
consumers a voice or service issue or question
and platform
Seventy-eight percent of consumers agree
that social media is the fastest and most
direct way to connect with a brand—and
consumers want their voices heard.

% %
31
Social media
33
Social media

Social media 31% Customer service number 11% Social media 33% Review website 7%
Email 18% Brand survey 8% Customer service 24% In-person 3%
Review website 16% In-store 3% Email 23% Brand survey 2%
Company website 18% Other <1% Company website 9%
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Stay ahead of the social consumer

Stop treating Actions consumers take when they follow brands on social

followers as a
Visit the brand’s website or app 91% Recommend that brand to friends/family 83%
vanity metric
Nine out of 10 consumers will buy from brands
Buy from that brand 90% Leave a review for that brand 79%
they follow on social, while 86% will choose
that brand over a competitor.

Choose that brand over a competitor 86% Reach out for customer service/support 76%

Visit the brand’s physical retail store 86% Read that brand’s blog or site content 76%

Buy from that brand more often 85% Engage with that brand on social 73%

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Stay ahead of the social consumer

Relevance Actions brands can take to get consumers to buy

from them over a competitor
separates the best
from the rest All ages 18-23 24-39 40-55 56-74

Listening to and acknowledging your Respond to customer service

questions in a timely manner 47% 41% 41% 46% 60%
customers isn’t just good manners—it’s also
good business sense. A seamless customer
experience, no matter the time or day, and
Demonstrate an understanding
content that speaks to the consumers’
of what I want and need
43% 50% 45% 37% 41%
needs can further distinguish a brand from
its competition.

Create more culturally relevant

content 39% 36% 53% 51% 13%

Create educational content

about their product or service
31% 27% 25% 32% 42%

Engage with me on social 27% 31% 37% 29% 10%

Sprout Social IndexTM XVII: Accelerate sproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial 17

 Section 3

Break through
the social ceiling

Sprout Social IndexTM XVII: Accelerate sproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial 18

Break through the social ceiling

Brands are losing How social data is viewed within an organization

out on the true

potential of social 47%
A resource that
Eighty-eight percent of marketers agree
influences strategy
their social strategy positively influences
for multiple teams
their bottom line. But the reality is that
organizations still consider social a
marketing-specific resource and undervalue 46%
its business impact. Asked to describe their
cross-team efforts in regards to social, 50% Strictly as a
of marketers say they maintain occasional marketing resource
communication and collaboration with other
teams while 17% operate in complete silos.
8%
A resource for
organization-wide
business intelligence

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Break through the social ceiling

To stay How marketers use social data

competitive,
everyone needs to
be all-in on social 55% 48% 39% 32% 29%
In order to take advantage of all that social
has to offer, marketers need to demonstrate
Understanding my Developing Supporting other Analyzing Assessing campaign
how insights from social positively influence target audience creative content departments trends performance
strategies for every department, not just
marketing.

26% 25% 15% 10%

Fostering Reporting results Measuring Informing

connection with to my manager ROI business decisions
customers and/or team

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 Grow faster
with social
Social will only continue to accelerate competition in nearly every industry, leaving
brands with two options: embrace social and thrive, or do nothing and fall behind.
The insights from social inform everything from what your competitors are planning
next to what your customers need from your brand in the future. For marketers, this
is an opportunity to demonstrate how social positively influences all parts of the
business and why a brand’s competitive advantage lives on social.

Sprout Social IndexTM XVII: Accelerate sproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial 21

Research Methodology

Methodology
The Sprout Social IndexTM is a report compiled and released by Sprout Social. All
referenced data is based on 1,002 US consumer respondents and 1,001 US marketer
respondents. Both the consumer and marketer surveys were conducted online by Lucid
between March 30 and April 6, 2021.

The report also analyzed more than 782 million messages from 534,000 public social
profiles that were active between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Data includes
posts from Facebook, Google My Business, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TripAdvisor and
Twitter. The top 0.5% of data was winsorized to limit the impact of extreme outliers.

Graphics are rounded to the nearest whole percentage and may not add up to exactly 100%.

For questions about the data, please contact pr@sproutsocial.com.

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Sprout Social
Sprout Social offers deep social media
listening and analytics, social management,
customer care and advocacy solutions to
more than 25,000 brands and agencies
worldwide. Sprout’s unified platform
integrates the power of social throughout
every aspect of a business and enables social
leaders at every level to extract valuable
data and insights that drive their business
forward. Headquartered in Chicago, Sprout
operates across major social media networks,
including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn. Learn more
at sproutsocial.com.