With apologies to John Wanamaker, or whoever actually said the apocryphal line – “I know that half my advertising doesn’t work, I just don’t know which half” – Microsoft Advertising’s Kelly Jones updated it for social, referencing Wanamaker and referencing Microsoft research indicating that contemporary marketers believe that “65% of word-of-mouth is missing its target.”
“If you’re generating all of this word-of-mouth and it’s not getting to the right people you are wasting” your social media budgets and energies, she said, adding that the trick is to refine a brand’s social media messaging to make sure it is more targeted.
She cited additional research showing that the No. 1 word-of-mouth influencer on social media are ratings and reviews by friends and experts.
According to Microsoft Advertising’s research, lots of touchpoints – even high-powered media like TV advertising – may influence a consumer’s “decision-making journey” and that an individual consumer’s decision process could take upwards of a year to convert, even for a simple product like “skincare.”
But then one day, they see a comment or a tweet from a friend about that product, and the next day the consumer goes out and buys the product.
Clearly, Jones left a bit of attribution out of that process, but she noted that the apparent cause and effect of that behavior demonstrates “how amazing” the power of social media can be.