Chris Yates blogs on yates11.wordpress.com that some companies are still struggling with Social Media because they don’t understand THE VALUE. These companies just want to hear about ROI and that’s obviously important but without TRUST from your customers they won’t get what they want. Building trust with your Customers should always be the number 1 objective but if a Company still needs numbers then here you go.

1) Dell computers last year made $1 Million in sales directly related to social sites,

2) Humana Insurance says the PR they got from Social Sites was valued at $72 Million,

3) Zappos went from $4 Million to $2.4 Billion in sales in just 3 yrs and they attributed most of that to utilizing social sites,

4) Sony has a social community that is focused on learning and not selling & 78% in that community buys Sony products,

5) Whole Foods has created a Facebook Page and  has over 680,000 followers, and

6) The Blog for Southwest Airlines has reached over 2 Million fans through Social Media.

Social Media is still about conversations with people but if a company still needs some numbers to back that up now you have some facts.