Taking Social Media Beyond The Buzz: Measuring The Effectiveness Of Social Media Brand Building

Transcription

1 Taking Social Media Beyond The Buzz: Measuring The Effectiveness Of Social Media Brand Building

2 Taking Social Media Beyond the Buzz: Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Media for Brand Building Background There s a huge buzz around Social Media - both in the traditional media and among marketers, with everyone wanting to to leverage this new world of consumer exposure. Most brand managers have set up a Facebook page or are actively exploring what to do. They are now turning to their market research departments and asking whether this is all worth it? Should we make the effort? Are we reaching the right people? How do we know if it is working? A good starting point for quantifying the value of social media audiences is to analyze brand engagement by breaking out the effect of internet presence from other means of promotion. We evaluate this effect through a case study of cutting edge market research conducted for a leading Indian FMCG conglomerate for one of their key brands in the personal care category that had a strong social media presence by way of a Facebook brand community. Why is there such huge interest in Social Media as a marketing medium, given India s current internet penetration at below 10%? 1 Internet in India is primarily an urban phenomenon with a 24% penetration here. However at higher SECs the picture changes with SEC A and B accounting for over 70% of urban penetration. 2 This is an attractive, high spending population which most marketers want to reach and engage with. Over the past two years Facebook has emerged as the front runner in the Social Media cyberspace, with almost 93% of India s active urban internet population having an account. Within Facebook, the largest portion of users time is spent on the individual s homepage which features the Newsfeed. Internationally, most top brands have established Facebook pages for their brands. In India the trend is quickly catching on with brands establishing a social presence in an attempt to engage more with their consumers. However in all this rush to adopt the latest trends, Marketers are also asking some tough questions about Social Media, its reach, efficacy and ROI. This objective of this paper is to assess the reach and efficacy of a brand s Facebook community page in driving brand

3 engagement including brand salience, consideration and trial. By following such research methodologies, marketers will be able to get better insights as to what to expect from adopting new social media initiatives. Research Issues There are many questions that arise when we try to evaluate the ROI from a Social Media campaign. Some of the key issues pertaining to brand engagement of Facebook sites are: Reach of the media: who will it reach, and how many people will it reach? Impact of Social Media campaign on brand engagement awareness, trial, loyalty, recommendation. Effective return on investment from the initiative. The approach to assess impact of Social Media research on brand engagement Current research techniques for branded content on social platforms focus on buzz - describing the frequency of exposure of brand content; and to a lesser degree, categorizing it as positive or negative, without regard to the size or composition of the audience receiving that content. This approach has limitations as knowing the volume of brand mentions does not provide insight on the potential impact of the buzz. When evaluating the impact of Facebook site on brand engagement, there are 3 sample groups which need to be considered: Fans/Community members These are Facebook users who demonstrate their affinity for brands through use of the like button, or joining a community. By liking a brand followers can express their interest in a brand for self-expression, communicating positive associations of the brand to others, staying in touch with the brand, getting information and updates, or receiving deals and promotions. Friends of Fans This group is defined as those who are not explicitly brand Fans but who are exposed to brand impressions through a Friend who is a Fan of a particular brand.

4 Non-Fans All users of the social network who have neither become a Fan of a particular brand, nor are they connected to a Fan. Case Study: Evaluating the Impact of Facebook brand community on brand engagement for leading FMCG major The case study presented seeks to evaluate the impact of different levels of exposure to Facebook promotional campaign on brand engagement. The client - one of India s leading FMCG majors, had recently embarked on an extensive digital media campaign, the center piece of which was a Facebook brand community page. The main objective of the digital campaign was to drive consideration and trial of a new personal care product. The key components of the Digital campaign included: A Facebook community Other initiatives eg a microsite on Bollywood Hungama.com, a channel on Daily motion.com Paid promotions on Facebook, Orkut and other popular sites Research Objective To estimate the reach and efficacy of the digital campaign, particularly the Facebook community page, in driving brand engagement. Key metrics of interest were brand salience, consideration, trial and recommendation. To get feedback on interactions with Facebook community members - elements liked and disliked so as to fine tune the community page along respondent preferences. Methodology A test - control design was used assess efficacy of the Facebook site on brand engagement. A 15 minute online survey was administered among community members via a custom built survey App, and among non-members using one of India s leading online panels. Engaging contests were hosted and daily updates with winner names etc were posted to ensure healthy rates of participation.

5 Control group: Survey among 150 respondents from general internet population who were aware of brand to assess awareness of internet campaign and incidence of visitation/becoming a member of the Facebook site Test group: 150 Fans/ Members of Facebook community consumers who liked the brand and became members of the Facebook community. A Facebook application was developed and posted on the wall of the Facebook site as a contest which included a survey and offered incentives to participate. A deep dive on user experience and likes/dislikes, etc of the Facebook site was also taken from this group Friends of Fans group were also included to assess impact of brand impressions on this groups Key metrics include: For both groups the impact of Facebook site was assessed by Campaign (and brand) salience; source of awareness Key message recall and understanding of the campaign and brand perceptions Impact on disposition, trial, purchase, recommendation, etc Among consumers who had visited Facebook site, deep dive to elicit detailed feedback on Usage of Facebook community/ Reasons for joining Effectiveness of each element within the online campaign e.g. contests, photos, blogs, favorite apps etc Likes/Dislikes through the site, what did they want more of

6 Key Insights Findings were analyzed by comparing the Control group (general internet population) with the Test Group (Facebook community members). The Facebook campaign showed promise as an alternative promotion media for the brand. Awareness of Facebook advertising ranging between 15-25% across demographic groups in the general internet population. Campaign usership was higher among younger males, SEC A respondents and Metros. Expectedly, fans of the site showed the highest level of engagement with the brand in terms intention to try, recommend and purchase. Purchase intent was 46% higher among community members than non-members, and ratings on emotional and functional attributes was significantly higher as well. The activities, contests, quizzes etc also led to high engagement and screentime on the community with high repeat visitation rates. Overall perception of the brand and of the company was much higher among members than non-members. Conclusion This study greatly helped our client understand the overall impact, effectiveness and reach of the Facebook campaign. It also helped in understanding consumers interaction with the Facebook Campaign by analyzing the recall and likeability of various elements of the campaign such as activities, contests, blogs etc. Future social media campaigns can now be shaped using the learnings from this research. While building a Facebook page is easy, ensuring visitation, positive interaction and engagement is difficult, yet critical. It is essential to constantly monitor these new digital initiatives through new and engaging research techniques and then modify the digital strategy.

7 References 1. ICUBE 2010 report 2. _Like_How_Brands_Reach_and_Influence_Fans_Through_Social_Media_Marketing 3. Understanding social media s effect on market research, 4. Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network? San Francisco Chicago New York London Dubai New Delhi Bangalore Singapore