Great article on brands and social networking from iMedia leveraging eMarketers research, but believe the implications are misleading. For example, having 52% of Social Networks being a "Fan" on Facebook of a brand seems like a cool thing for brand marketers but reality is being a fan of say 1 brand like Nike or REI that the consumer is passionate about already does not mean that brands should expect to have their customers or Facebook users to become fans.
In fact, most likely just the opposite. As new users come on to Facebook, most go through the learning a "newbie" learning curve, like my journalist friend at the wall street journal we wrote about last week (see article Social Newbie), where we all start out wondering about the banality of things like "status updates", accepting inane applications, and of course becoming a fan of certain brands and causes.
Then phase 2 kicks in where we say "enough" and start using Facebook as tool to communicate, learn about folks we care about and stop looking at everything that comes in (very similar to email). And we stop friending everyone, we never download another application again and we become very leery of groups and fans of pages because getting spammed in Facebook one too many times. So, love the research, but disagree with the implications extracted. Read entire post below.
"Half of Social Media Users Connect With Brands
August 31, 2009, imediaConnection
Marketers may be adopting social media in droves, but are consumers reciprocating by following or becoming a fan of companies and brands on social media sites? According to recent data, the answer would seem to be a resounding 'yes'.
A study published today by eMarketer, more than half of social networking users have become a fan or follower of a brand online. Moreover, users are far more likely to say something positive about a brand than something negative.
From the report:
"52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46% had said something good about a brand or company on a social networking Websiteâ€"double the percentage who had said something negative (23%)."
In other words, there seems to be much more going on beyond businesses simply setting up shop on social media sites and hoping people will show up. Rather, users are actively seeking out their favorite brands online or being connected through other means - like a friend's suggestion, a link on a website, or offline advertising. All the more reason that spending on the medium is expected to continue to increase over the next five years."
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl
Reviews: iStockphoto
Tags: social media, social networking
