Insightful Study on Social Media Engagement

June 30, 2012

A study of nearly 1,500 adults in May proves that Facebook users are engaging with brands on Facebook. The research, performed, by Burst Media, found several positive insights for brands hoping to reach their consumers on the social networking site:

1. Nearly 50% of the respondents “Like” brands on Facebook.

Promising to brands and advertisers, nearly 50% of the respondents like brands on Facebook. The majority of users follow brands on Facebook to keep up the latest content, to share this content with friends and family (earned media!), and share their comments and opinions. This is great news for brands, and displays the importance of creating content around your brand that your followers can read, share, and comment on. It goes to show that users aren’t interested in following brands for advertising purposes, but instead for actual content around the brand and whatever it is promoting (for example, sales and giveaways). This means that you should not make posts saying “Our brand is great, buy us”, but instead, post a story that ties in to your brand.

2. 62% of the respondents “Like” their favorite content sites on Facebook.

More people like content sites (like news sites, etc) on Facebook than brands on Facebook. It’s likely that this is because users spend more time online on content sites than social media to begin with. This is especially true of men, where over 42% spend the majority of their time online on content sites versus 15% on social media sites.

3. Over 25% of the respondents (and 32% of mom respondents) were likely to “Like” a brand after seeing a socially-enabled ad for the brand.

Nearly a quarter of social media users like” a brand after seeing a socially-enabled ad. The numbers are even higher for younger users, with nearly one third of those ages 18-34 likely to take action after seeing such ads. This is great news after the troublesome controversy when the Facebook IPO was launched.

4. Women use social media much more than men.

The study found that women in age groups 35 and older are much more likely to use social media a few times per day than men. Women and men ages 18-34 , however, were almost equally likely to use social media daily.