While they acknowledge that use of the internet as a tool for communications can yield both positive and negative effects, a significant majority of technology experts and stakeholders say it improves social relations and will continue to do so through 2020, according to the recent “Future of the Internet” study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center.
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Many social media marketers are eager to tie a hard number to the value of their efforts. To that end, firms have attempted to analyze the worth of fans and followers on social networking sites like Facebook.
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Digital consulting firm Syncapse and research company Hotspex have come up with an empirical formula that puts an average value of $136.38 on the Facebook fans of the site’s 20 biggest corporate brands. Most of that value comes from how much the fans will spend on the brand’s products, with additional dollars coming from customer loyalty, recommendations and earned media.
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The study found that people spent significantly more on products they were fans of, compared with consumers who were not fans. In the case of many of Facebook’s most popular food and beverage marketers, fan spending was more than double that of non-fans.
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The pattern of increased fan spending held across all of the top 20 brands on Facebook, with differences ranging from 51% for Oreo fans to 168% for fans of Nokia.
Read more at www.emarketer.com |
Social Networking Study: Facebook Use Continues to Rise; Brand Participation and Engagement Heavily Welcomed by Social Networkers |
The study of 3,000 U.S. social network users tackled not only general behaviors and platform preferences for social sites; it delved deeper into how social sites affect family and friend relationships and consumer attitudes towards brands and products. The most staggering statistics include: |
- Eighty percent of respondents have an active Facebook account, and 23 percent of those without an active Facebook account plan to join in the next six months
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Consumers reported a desire to connect with brands throughout the study: |
- Fifty percent of Facebook users click on Facebook ads to “like” a brand
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- Thirty-seven percent learned about a new product or service from a social networking site
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- Thirty-two percent of respondents have recommended a product/service/brand to friends via a social networking site
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By far, the biggest barrier to an effective measurement strategy is a lack of budget and resources, named by over one-half of responding companies. Fewer than one-third selected any other issue. Budget problems were more severe than in 2009, when 45% of respondents complained of them.
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Agencies disagreed somewhat with their clients, claiming a lack of understanding was the top issue, but admitting companies were improving in this area over 2009.
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The social networking audience in the US has reached critical mass. eMarketer estimates that 57.5% of all US Internet users, or 127 million people, will use a social network at least once a month in 2010. By 2014, nearly two-thirds of all Internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networks. |
The “2010 Digital Marketing Outlook” report found that 81% of the brand executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010, and one-half will be moving dollars from traditional to digital budgets. Further, more than three-quarters think the current economy will push more allocations to digital.
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Senior marketers reported that social networks and applications were their biggest priority for 2010, followed closely by digital infrastructure. While social media marketing looks set to stay top of mind, a majority of respondents considered a range of digital activities at least “important,” with only games failing to inspire widespread interest.
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| According to the first annual Community and Social Media Study, from the The e-tailing group five out of ten social media tools have been adopted by more than 50% percent of brands and retailers, with the Facebook Fan Page leading the way at 86%. In addition, the study found three-fourths of the survey respondents feel brands have accelerated their use of, and commitment to, community and social media in the past six months. The study found that the penetration of social media tools within brand and retailer organizations is extremely high, given the length of time these tools have been around: | Community and Social Networking Tools Employed and Planned (% of Respondents) | | | Anticipated Timing | | Network or Tool | Today | Next 12 Months | Beyond 1 Year | No Plans to Employ | | Facebook fan page | 86% | 10 | 3 | 1 | | Twitter | 65 | 19 | 7 | 9 | | Customer reviews | 55 | 26 | 13 | 6 | | Blogs | 55 | 25 | 12 | 8 | | Viral videos | 50 | 22 | 13 | 15 | | Facebook connect | 43 | 31 | 10 | 16 | | Social listening | 36 | 31 | 19 | 14 | | Q & A | 29 | 20 | 25 | 26 | | Community forums | 27 | 18 | 23 | 32 | | Product suggestion box | 19 | 26 | 20 | 35 | | Source: e-Tailing Group, September 2009 | Read more at www.mediapost.com |
From a study conducted by Penn State | Companies are also benefiting from Twitter, where 20 percent of the tweets contain requests for product information or responses to the requests, according to Jim Jansen, associate professor of information science and technology in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State. |
“People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services,” said Jansen. “Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services.” |
| he team looked for tweets mentioning a brand and why the brand was mentioned — to inform others, express a view on the brand or something else — and found that people were using tweets to connect with the products. |
| About 20 percent of the tweets contained product information in the form of asking and providing, thus giving companies a “rich source” of information concerning issues and questions that customers have regarding their products.Read more at live.psu.edu |
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Most See Internet As A Positive Force On Social World
