Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Doesn't Always Match Social Media, Online Results

• by Wayne Friedman , December 8, 2016

Word-of-mouth/offline marketing doesn’t always match up with social media/online efforts -- and that can be tricky for marketers.

Engagement Labs conducted research on some 500 brands going back to mid-2015, calculating scores in each marketing area. For those that have disparate efforts -- performing well either on social media or word-of-mouth offline marketing, but not both -- it labels those marketers “social misfits.”

For example, brands such as Palmolive, Corona and Aveeno, tallied the greatest disparity -- some of the highest offline word-of-mouth marketing results but low social media-online scores. BMW posted a high offline 70 number.

Conversely, RCA, PayPal, and SunTrust garnered the greatest disparity, with some of the highest social media/online scores -- but the worst word-of-mouth offline numbers.

Among media brands, TNT earned the top offline word-of-mouth marketing score at 65, but a low 38 number for social media.

On the flip side, MTV (63 score), MSNBC (63), and TMZ.com (55) posted big social media/online scores, but lower offline numbers -- 43, 44, and 36, respectively.