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People who are Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to buy the brand’s product or recommend it to a friend, according to a new study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies.
The study of 1,500 consumers found that 60 percent of Facebook fans and 79 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower.
More than half (51%) of Facebook fans and 67 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of.
"While social media is not the silver bullet that some pundits claim it to be, it is an extremely important and relatively low cost touch point that has a direct impact on sales and positive word of mouth," said Josh Mendelsohn a vice president at Chadwick Martin Bailey.
"Companies not actively engaging are missing a huge opportunity and are saying something to consumers – intentionally or unintentionally- about how willing they are to engage on consumers’ terms."
The study also found that people view brands not engaging in social media as out of touch.
When asked the question "What does it say about a brand if they are not involved with sites like Facebook or Twitter?" they said the following:
* "It’s EXPECTED that a company have some digital face – whether it’s on FB or Twitter I don’t know – but they need a strong electronic presence or you doubt their relevance in today’s marketplace." Female 50-54
* "Either they are not interested in the demographic that frequents Facebook and Twitter or they are unaware of the opportunity to get more exposure in a more interactive method." Male 35-39
* "It shows they are not really with it or in tune with the new ways to communicate with customers." Female 18-24.
* "If they’re not on Facebook or Twitter, then they aren’t in touch with the "electronic" people." Female 55-59
Apart from the digital face these brands give an impression of being more open and approachable in their communication.
This surely goes a long way in proving the credibility of the company. The prospective customers want information about the product which every company readily gives but they also want a platform for discussion or asking queries after the product is bought.
The brands with a digital face atleast give an impression of being available for comment in case of such a situation. As phone calls can be avoided but social media compels the companies to answer in order to keep up to their brand reputation.
It helps both the brand as well as the buyer as both get a platform express themselves.
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Thank for topic.
I am agree.
What a pointless survey
People who have made a positive choice to become a fan / follwer of a particular brand are more likely to buy / recommend it… of course they are, they wouldn’t have made the positive choice if they didn’t like the brand…
At least most of the 5 million Coca-cola fans on facebook will… not sure how many of the 800,000 Ferrari fans have ever bought or will ever buy a ferrari… or recommend to their friends that they buy one.
I feel sorry for the sheeple who live their lives and choose their shopping based on what Facebook tells them. Personally I haven’t ever bought anything that I know has a Facebook page – except Coke… but then I was never swayed by peer pressure into trying smack or sniffing glue, even though a lot of my friends recommended it to me at first…
Is it just me, or is that not common sense? Presumably I would become a fan of a company on Twitter or Facebook if I’m already predisposed to liking that company and therefore predisposed to buying something from them, if I haven’t already. Presumably people aren’t becoming fans of random companies they have never heard of or tried out. A more useful study would have looked at whether someone viewing a company on a social networking site (not necessarily becoming a fan) is likely to purchase something in the future.
I’m interested to see this, not that my brand benefits, but the market study into the way people think and act allows marketers of on page content to understand a little more about the companies they should represent on their pages versus who they want to advertise for, and how to do it better visually.
I see where, in theory, this could be true back and forth, reciprocal. I don’t see becoming more loyal when joining through promotion, but that’s just me, not the average person. Does that really mean getting more followers? I am the brand for my niche, I need creatives that look like advertiser’s Twitter icons. Perhaps get paid for getting them followed?
Keep it Str8!
Ya think??
You really shouldn’t waste your readers’ time with a pointless article like that. I’m less likely to read your materials now that I’ve read this.
So, let me see if I’ve got this right – people who are interested enough in a brand to make the decision to become a fan or follower are more likely to buy that brands’ product than someone who doesn’t really care about that brand?
Not really compelling evidence for the power of social media to support brand strategy is it?
This is somewhat true. Most of the teenagers do end up buying stuff targeted towards them.
When I first read this I thought this was great news. But as I thought more about it, something started bothering me.
There are several tools that automatically create Twitter followers for a specific account. Because of these tools, I set my Twitter account to just follow anyone who follows me, on autopilot. At the end of the day, I have no clue who I’m really following, especially if you are following thousands of folks. It’s impossible for me to read all the tweets from these thousands of people who are tweeting throughout the day.
Maybe we need another survey to find out how many Twitter people actually follow without using tools and also find out how many actually read the tweets from the accounts they follow.
Very true this. You have to keep in mind that spamming your customers is just like handing them a knife and letting them thrust it into the very spine of your business, possibly crippling it for life.
I understand that facebook has such a high conversion rate. I am a bit surprised about twitter. There are so many companies out there who sell softwares for twitter. They sould really have less efficiency I think.
Is this really news for marketing people and those running companies? I mean if a person goes on to subscribe to feeds/page of a business/brand, then it basically means that they like that brand, beyond just a single purchase and is likely a brand follower and is thus recommending them to those he/she knows!
Is this too difficult to understand and do we really need a survey to come up with this kind of conclusion?
I’m 53, & right now I only have ONE friend
who is self employed & without a web presence,
she makes wedding dresses, teaches workout classes
& guitar lessons at home. But she has been in the
Cleveland OH market for 50 years so her loyal
customer base was established long before the internet.
She doesn’t even own a computer.
She’s a rare exception these days, for sure.
This article is completely pointless. My 6 year old can draw the conclusion that people who like something on Facebook are more likely to buy it. Please stop publishing crap like this and stick to informative articles.
I strongly agree with views presented by Chadwick or Mike that brands which are not using social media, they are far behind of electronic media. Social media plays a vital role for decision making or referral based marketing for any brands or products.
In my country Nigeria, I discovered that some companies
and individuals who are marketing their products through
FaceBook fan pages are make a lot of profits.
So, I decided to start mine this week only for me to get
a boost through this article.
Thanks for sharing this article with us.
Ken
You can’t get your name out enough, Twitter and Facebook are perfect avenues for that! There are over 300,000,000 people in the United States; how many do you think you are reaching without just these two social sites?
Today, Facebook and Twitter can turn any tide against anybody or in their favor. They can make or break any brand too, so powerful they are.
VK
The tried and true methods of good sales and support have never died, they just changed in communication channels. People like to be involved without paying first. Freely giving of your expertise is always a good icebreaker. It allows you to demonstrate your capabilities at no risk to your prospective customer. Another added bonus is that your prospect gets a chance to see how you handle existing customers. Letting them in – so to speak.
I concluded this awhile back and the survey supports my argument.
Obviously people who ‘follow’ these brands online will be up todate with the company’s marketing efforts through social media. But what wasn’t obvious was the level of involvement of their family and friends… whenever anyone follows a brand and the brand updates on social media – that update, if interesting – or if it addresses their current concern, ie. a sale on baby items – this will be repeated to their circle of family and friends.
The impact is large because you dont have to watch television or read the news to be updated on the brands marketing efforts. All you have to do is open your facebook account or be active on twitter.
Some of the comments on this thread are pretty dumb. These surveys help company’s efficiently use their budgets. And even if it is an obvious conclusion – atleast the survey provides hard evidence.
I totally agree with a brand sells better
Thanks for the post
Agree with the above comments but the only reason people will follow a brand on Facebook etc. is if there is a chance to either get something for FREE or some other promotional draw.
It is not the brand as such, it’s just what they feel they can get out of it for themselves. Just human nature, that’s all.
Andy
There’s a point being missed by everyone that if they spend money and find out something like this, as simple as it is, they’re going to spend money to try and make moneyand this could be it. ANOTHER IDEA FOR YOUR DEAD SPACE; http://goo.gl/Wmoa
Busy people have little time for Facebook or Twitter.
That means, when the website is COMMERCIAL, they have little time for their customers. On that basis, commercial sites would be well advised to use one, the other or both. They can even employ somebody full-time to maintain a Web presence on Facebook or Twitter. It proves that they have made time for their customers.
Non-commercial sites, particularly one-man-bands, are up against a time penalty. One cannot spend endless time twittering for little reward. Users of Facebook and Twitter cannot really expect free gifts and free information to be offered to them “on a silver plate” by busy website authors. For non-commercial sites, one should either look elsewhere, or rely on third-party recommendations.
Charles Douglas Wehner
It only means that these ads are well targetted, especially on facebook.
So, does this mean that blogging is dead???
do CONSUMERS still actually follow blogs, are is the only use really for creating search engine fodder???
AND… People who hang posters of their favorite political candidates are more likely to vote for that candidate or recommend them to a friend… DUH
Brands are popular and become ‘comfortable’ sights around the ‘neighborhood’. FB and Twitter offer a sense of ‘community’ and open doors for both the professional and the personal. I hope more businesses understand the opportunity to market their own brands. Great article!
So we’re not signing up fans; we’re recruiting ambassadors!
your ideas is very good.