Consumer Engagement, Word-of-Mouth Advocacy & Increasing Brand Loyalty: Study Reveals the Social Media Objectives Trinity

Written by Kathy on October 8, 2009

While it should come as no surprise to anyone by now that many companies are embracing the use of social media as part of their overall marketing plan, a recent study reveals that brands are more likely to implement the use of social media now than ever before. The use of Facebook and Twitter by brands and merchants is at an all-time high, and customer reviews rank as the number one driving force for both consumer engagement and sales.

Community and Social Media Study

This survey of US web retailers was conducted by the e-tailing group and PowerReviews in August and September of 2009 for their “Community and Social Media Study.” Those surveyed were asked to answer questions about how they have adopted social media, and what they were trying to accomplish or what problems they were trying to solve using social media tools. The study surveyed 117 companies in total, a group which included multi-channel retailers (44%), brands & manufacturers (26%), pure-play retailers (12%), catalogers (9%), and suppliers/agencies (9%).

Social Media Tools

According to the survey, Facebook holds the top position for the most users, with 86% of online retailers currently using Facebook Fan Pages, and 10% planning to begin sometime in the 12 months. Twitter came in second, with 65% currently using and 19% planning to over the next year. Other social media tools and current usage are Customer Reviews (55%), Blogs (55%) and Viral Videos (50%).

Social Media Implementation

Brand and Merchant Objectives for Using Social Media

Brands and merchants listed their objectives in order of priority (apart from increasing sales). The following three, the “social media trinity”, came in at the top:

  1. greater customer engagement (39%)
  2. mobilizing advocates to drive “word of mouth” (30%)
  3. increasing brand loyalty (21%)

Social Media Objectives Chart

Social Media Concerns

The top three concerns the survey respondents had in relation to social media were:

  1. brand degradation fear – “people can trash my products in front of a large audience” (49%)
  2. competence fear – “I am using outdated marketing/merchandising techniques” (34%)
  3. competitive fear – “customer might leave my site to find a more socially-engaging site” (26%)

Social Media Concerns Chart

Implications & What’s Next

Lauren Freedman, President of the e-tailing group, states, “The integration of community and social networking within e-commerce has reached critical mass and as such is now a benchmark that we will be tracking annually. Customer engagement has become a metric to be reckoned with, where failing to engage consumers via community and social media will have brand and bottom-line implications. All merchants must test and understand how to effectively deploy it for their brands to retain customers, encourage sales, and avoid abandonment to competitors who’ve better embraced its marketing potential.”

In summary, these days, consumer engagement should be considered a marketing objective rather then simply a strategy, right along with sales. It will become increasingly important as more companies continue to engage their customers via social media in the future.