A new survey of data from the Opinion Research Coproration (1,092 consumers) found that 85% of social media users thought companies should interact with them through social media. For those trying their hand in social media marketing to gain traction this is a good thing to hear. The trend is becoming apparent and web users are becoming more fickle. They are tired of being bombarded with ads, and instead are looking for interactive and well managed social media marketing campaigns.

Out of all the people in the study, only 5% of them felt companies should not be in social media at all. On the other hand 8% of the subjects felt it would be ok for companies to have a presence in social media but not interact while 51% felt that social media marketing was ok if the interaction was somewhat limited. The remaining 34% of the study group felt companies should go full throttle with their social media strategies.

As always looking through the charts will show that online retailers are early to the game. With an ever competitively growing market, looking for new ways to connect with consumers has been priority number one for most companies lately and that’s exactly what social media marketing allows them to engage in. While there are tons of social media sites to network on, companies seem to be sticking to the big boys like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.

While the line between interaction and advertising becomes more grey it should be interesting to see how spam plays a role. Many users often feel like online ads are intrusive but when you think about it social media marketing is even more intrusive but the key is making it transparent and credible. These people have accepted brands and business into their online social network and now those companies have their foot in the door.