I've heard a lot of people tell me that they'e convinced that social media is like 'Field Of Dreams' for their consumers...if they build a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account, consumers will come and chat their Internet connections off.
Meh, not convinced it's totally the case. When you're online for personal reasons, are you more likely to Tweet at your friends, or Tweet at a brand? When you log on to Facebook, do you go straight to a brand page or to a ex bf/gf's page to stalk (or something like that!)?
According to research company AYTM, "whilemost marketers leverage Facebook and Twitter to communicate with customers, not nearly as many consumers comment about these companies and brands on the social sites."
They found out that on Facebook:
- 57.8% of US Facebook users had not mentioned a brand in their status updates as of October 2011
- Only 0.5% of Facebook users posted only negative mentions about brands on Facebook
- More often, they reported commenting on brands in a positive way (25.3%) or with a mix of both positive and negative mentions (16.4%)
This was quite similar to Twitter findings...
- 61.3% of Twitter users saying they have not tweeted about a brand
- 25.4% of Twitter users said they only mentioned brands in positive tweets
- 0.4% said they only mentioned them in negative tweets
- 12.9% said in both positive and negative tweets
This means that not only is there work to be done to make your social presence more engaging, but recognize that social doesn't work in a funnel. Consumers engage in more than one type of media in many different ways, so you should be too!
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