Social Networks Drive More Brand Awareness
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, September 9, 2016
While social networks are still used mostly for socializing and product discovery, they are playing a bigger role in driving consumers’ brand awareness and buying decisions.
In fact, 41% of consumers now say they have purchased a product as a result of an ad -- or sponsored (affiliate) post -- on social media, according to a new national survey Adlucent.
“The way consumers engage with brands is changing, and social media is one of the main drivers behind it,” Michael Griffin, founder and CEO of the digital ad agency, notes in a new report.
In addition, 45% of consumers now say that product recommendations from influencers they follow on social media have at least some impact on their purchase decisions.
Clearly winning the brand game, 76% of consumer respondents note that they have learned about a new brand or product on Facebook -- more than any other social media site.
What’s more, nearly 10% of consumers say they have purchased products as a result of seeing an ad on Facebook.
People are not following brands, however. In fact, a full 75% of consumers say they don’t follow a single brand on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat or Periscope.
As for what resonates with consumers on social channels, the more personalized the better. Indeed, across seven major social media sites, an average 46% of respondents say they would prefer tailored social media ads.
Specifically, 68% expressed a desire for tailored Facebook ads, 63% want tailored ads on YouTube, and 67% want tailored Twitter ads. Consumers say personalized ads are less disruptive. They give them more control over the overall experience.
The research does not address whether they are comfortable with networks collecting more personal data -- in order to serve more personalized ads.
Gavin, your headline suggests that social media drives more ad awareness that some other medium----TV perhaps? But I gather that no such comparisons are included in this report.
In any event the claim by 41% of the respondents that they have purchased a product---any product--- in response to an ad or post on social media is hardly an impressive statistic. Such highly generalized findings hardly translate to what benefit a typical advertised product would gain from exposure on socoal media. At the very least, it the study had prior data----even for this vaguely worded question---and it showed that only 15% made the same claim two years ago, at least that might suggest that a positive trend has developed.
Maybe the headline was truncated. "Social networks drive more brand awareness ... than they did 20 years ago". Or "Social networks drive more brand awareness ... than one bloke in a crowd with a megaphone".