Brand advocacy has become big business in the last few years. With the increasing infatuation with celebrity, the influence of social media, and the era of “consumer power,” brand advocates have risen to become a powerful ally to the marketer.
Brand advocates are people who habitually share information on the products they use, whether it be online or around the water cooler. They are people of influence and they are able to use many different outlets to voice their reviews, opinions and thoughts on a brand. Understanding brand advocate behavior is very important for marketers and a recent study sheds more light on these highly influential people.
The study was conducted by Dr. Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa at the University of Rhode Island, College of Business Administration and a social marketing company called BzzAgent.
The study looked at brand advocates and the way they think, act, and influence others.
Some of the questions the study focused on were who exactly are these brand advocates? What do they do differently, and why do they do it? Where do they live online? How do they like to interact with companies?
Advocates were then surveyed about their online activities and their responses were compared to those from typical web users. The data set is based on a representative sample of Web users from BzzAgent’s Agent network and from the general Web population. The findings helped paint a picture of the motivations and actions of brand advocates.
Here’s a look at some of the more interesting findings:
-Brand advocates are more than 2.5x more likely to use social media to expand their social circles than normal web users.
-They are 50% more likely to influence a purchase than normal web users.
-They communicate frequently to relax and genuinely enjoy sharing product information.
-Brand advocates are 70% more likely to be seen as a good source of information by people around them.
-They have strong opinions about products and where to buy them.
In summary, brand advocates tend to use social media to spread "the word" about a product. However they aren't just mindlessly spitting product information, they generally want to help others by recommending a product they might enjoy. This study proves once again that brand advocates are a lucrative form of marketing.
