In a recent study released by eMarketer, a leader in research and analysis on Digital Marketing and Media, it was revealed that based on an April 2010 study by ROI Research commissioned by Performics, active Twitter users spend one-third of their time tweeting about companies or products. Furthermore, Twitter users aren’t shy. 32% actively make recommendations, while 30% ask for recommendations in their own purchasing decisions.
Many marketers are trying to encourage this behavior and trying to immerse themselves in the conversation, but due to their tactics and approach, when the results are compared with previous research, from October 2009, marketers have done little to impact or influence consumers’ brand-oriented behavior.
On Twitter, when a user connects with a brand, they are highly likely to recommend, discuss or purchase from the company, but these numbers are showing a slight decline over the past six months.
In comparison to Facebook, the attitudes and activities are the same. Facebook users aren’t changing their behaviors much. From October 2009 to April 2010, a healthy percentage of users are interested in using Facebook as a tool to research business, but the practice has not become more important than last October.
Based on the success we’ve had for our clients on Twitter and Facebook, we attribute the results of this study to a couple of key findings:
- Facebook users don’t log into Facebook with their credit cards in hand
- Facebook marketers as a whole are using Facebook as push marketing, which is a turn off, rather than a way to have your consumers tune in
- Facebook marketers routinely make the conversation about themselves, their brand, or their product – not their consumers
Our advice? Don’t make social interaction with your brand a bad date. Help your consumers understand how they can use your product or service. In order to do that, you must begin by listening to and finding out more about your consumers that are interacting with your brand.
And remember, the best form of marketing is word of mouth. Even those social media users that aren’t engaging are still reading, and are connected to those that are interacting. Be part of the conversation, online and offline, in a positive way.