Social media has no significant impact on direct sales, but there is a strong relationship between a company's social media activity and consumers' perception on its brand equity.  This is according to a study sponsored by digital marketing consultancy, ECHOVME.

According to the research, social media is not an effective direct marketing tool because it is mostly ignored and considered as spam.  However, it is important for networking and engaging customers online.  The survey respondents consider social media tools helpful in sharing information, such as company and industry insights, project wins and recruitment processes.

The survey was conducted by MBA students of Great Lakes Institute of Management (Chennai), under the guidance of Dr. Krishna Ram, to investigate the impact of social media on customer satisfaction, brand equity and sales performace.   The respondents, which included 200 IT-savvy marketing executives, CEOs and managing directors from the UK, USA, Australia and India, answered a questionnare of three parts: Usage pattern and perception on social media; Information on generic social media tools; and Helpfulness of information on social media to end customer.