Social Net Users Ready to Be More than Just Brand Friends: Study

Posted on by Chief Marketer Staff

Almost a third of social-network users think they’re a good place to learn more about brands and the products or services they sell, according to a new survey by Publicis Groupe division Performics and analytics firm ROI Research.

What’s even more interesting is that 25% said they have clicked directly to an online retailer or e-commerce merchant after getting that information about brands and products.

The Web-based survey, “The Impact of Social Media,” posed 100 questions to more than 3,000 online U.S. consumers to find out whether and how they use social networks in their daily lives.

The findings, presented at ad:tech New York earlier this month, showed that 30% of consumed polled said they have learned about a new product, service or brand from a social networking site, and 34% have used a search engine to find information on a product, service or brand after seeing an ad on a social networking site.

While social networks such as Facebook or MySpace are often thought of as favoring “conversational marketing” that builds brand by listening to consumers over more aggressive tactics, the Performics/ROI study found that social network users are not opposed to getting specific deals or offers through those social channels. Specifically, 32% of respondents said messages about printable coupons could be effective with them in social media, while 28% said they could be persuaded to respond to notices about sales or specific offers or invitations to branded events in the channels.

“It’s been conventional wisdom that the social space is not a good environment to do hard marketing in,” says Performics senior vice president Michael Kahn. “A lot of conversations over the last few years have pointed out that yes, a lot of people are now playing in the social-media space—but are we ever going to be able to monetize this channel?”

“The ‘aha’ moment for us [revealed in the research findings] is lots of consumer receptivity to marketer messages, and an openness to receive them, to talk about them , and to share them with other folks on the networks,” Kahn says.

He draws the analogy to conversation at a dinner party or barbecue. “Some portion of that physical time spent with people will be spent talking about things we’ve bought or are thinking about buying, remodeling projects we’re engaged in, vacations we’ve taken, and so on. In the physical social world, commerce is coming up all the time. This study shows that is actually mirrored in the electronic social world, where people are, as it’s appropriate, talking about brands and products.”

While marketers have room to deploy more active brand or direct marketing tools in social networks, their communal functions are still important, the survey suggests. One quarter of all respondents said they have recommended a brand or product to friends through social networks, and 20% said they have discussed brands or products in online communities after seeing ads for them elsewhere.

Specifically, 46% of respondents said they have talked about a brand or product on Facebook, and 44% said they have tweeted or re-tweeted information about a brand or product on Twitter. And 36% of YouTube users said they have visited a retail Web site after learning about a brand on a social networking site.

The survey also revealed that one in four respondents maintain four or more active social network accounts, and that more than 25% access their Facebook or Twitter accounts at least once a day via mobile phone.

About 30% of respondents said they don’t belong to any online social networks. Asked why not, 77% of that group said they had no interest, 28% noted concerns about personal privacy, and 27% said they did not have the time to communicate that way.

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