Mobilizing Communities through Social Media—A View from the Street
The Internet and social media have helped elect a US President, organize revolutions across the Middle East, and most recently, bring tens of thousands of people worldwide to protest income disparities and the global economic system. Yet many businesses are still uncertain how best to mobilize communities of supporters around their brands. As a recently released survey has revealed, CMOs are feeling overwhelmed by social media, among other marketplace issues, so much so that many are throwing up their hands and turning outside the company for social media expertise.
In anticipation of our upcoming Critical Issues Forum, titled “Social Revolution: Are you mobilizing communities or just a voice in the crowd,” we decided to study how well consumers felt the brands they use were deploying social media to mobilize action on their part. We partnered with VeraQuest to question approximately 1500 respondents aged eighteen and older across the United States. Quotas were established for demographic groups (age, sex, income, education, race/ethnicity and region) to ensure that our survey group roughly resembled the United States population.
We uncovered a number of interesting findings. First, it’s clear that social media and networks of online “friends” are important to people. Over 80% reported being members of social networks (no surprise there…). We then asked respondents to put a dollar value on their online network of “friends” (“If someone offered to buy your network from you (for direct marketing, targeted advertising, etc.), about how much do you think it would be worth and that you would be willing to sell it for?”) A full six in ten adults responded that they would need at least $1000 to sell their network of friends, and 13% responded $1 million or more. Over a quarter of respondents claimed they would not sell their network for any amount.
As for how social media impacted consumers’ feelings about brands, as well as the actions they take on behalf of brands, the picture is mixed. Four in ten respondents (39%) reported that they “feel more connected” to brands because of social media, while almost half claimed that social media had no impact on their feelings. On the other hand, when we asked about brand loyalty, we found that 84% of online adults feel they are either “somewhat more loyal” or “much more loyal” because of social media. More than half of US adults reported having taken action because of something they had read about (the question didn’t specify whether social media was involved).
Yet only 9% felt that Facebook and other social media were “the best way to obtain a thorough understanding” of their favorite brands (visiting the brand’s web site and store visits scored highest).
This data might suggest that considerable room still exists for brands to engage consumers better via social media. Brands might consider how they can provide more and better brand information through their social media outreach. Stronger, more relevant, more compelling social media campaigns might also help more consumers feel more connected to brands. Brand ambassador programs seem to offer a special opportunity. When we asked whether a store or brand had reached out over the past three months to invite participation, a striking 85% of respondents replied “no.”
Our study revealed some interesting differences between Millenials and the rest of the population. More Millenials—almost half—reported feeling more connected with brands thanks to social media. One in five Millenials said that social media was the best way to obtain a thorough understanding of a brand, as opposed to only 8% of non-Millenials. Millenials also reported being more loyal and taking more action on behalf of a company or product. Although we would expect the wired generation to mobilize more thanks to social media, our findings suggest that brands could be mobilizing both Millenials and non-Millenials much more than they currently are.
The real question, of course, is how. Our Critical Issues Forum is sure to provide a wealth of helpful insights and best practices in the making. In the meantime, a topline summary of our research findings is available here. We welcome a hearty exchange of views both on how to interpret the data and what action steps firms can derive from them.
- In: Research, Social Networks
[...] http://prfirms.org/voice/2011/mobilizing-communities-through-social-media%E2%80%94a-view-from-the-st... [...]