Last time, we told you about a study that found social media leads to an increase in store traffic…

Well, a new study finds that social media, in combination with other marketing channels, makes consumers likely to spend more money.

Ogilvy-ChatThreads studied restaurant consumers, who reported their exposure to brand “touchpoints”, and found a 2x-7x higher probability of an increase in sales when social media was combined with other channels like PR, television, etc.

We found that in the real world, social content exposure – by itself and more broadly when combined with other types of media exposure such as out-of-home, PR or TV ads – is linked with 2-7x higher likelihood of consumption and actual spend increases.

What’s more, social media alone is enough to change perceptions of a brand.

And, social content exposure alone is associated with the largest shift in week-to-week brand perception.

Changes in brand perception ranged from -220% decrease to a +250% increase… over a seven day period.

Despite these strong social content impact findings, consumers are seeing relatively little branded social content during their daily routine.   Only 24% of the study group reported exposure to social content, compared to a 69% exposure rate to TV ads.

Clearly, businesses who have not yet added social media to their marketing arsenal should consider these results.

Social content may not be a “magic bullet”, but it is now shown to make your other efforts more effective, along with having its own effect on how consumers perceive your brand, and that increase in traffic we mentioned.

Do you really need more convincing?