Brand Advocate Behavior

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.

Getting the Gist of Lists

I recently came across an article on ReadWriteWeb that discussed Twitter's inability to fully take advantage of its Lists feature, noting a recent report showing that 44% of their own employees don't even create lists.

The report went on to show that 30% of Twitter employees don't subscribe to lists, while 51% don't subscribe to the official Twitter list. These numbers led the article to conclude that Twitter is doing a poor job of taking advantage of a "super-powerful" feature.

But should these numbers really trouble Twitter all that much?

Personally, I don't feel this is much of an issue. Yes, building Twitter lists can be a useful tool, but at the end of the day it's really just an organizational system. And like all methods of organizing, there isn't one right way to do it and it may not work well for everyone.

To be honest, I myself don't subscribe to many lists, and I definitely don't utilize them on a regular basis.

However, my own (lack of) List use aside, I do agree with ReadWriteWeb that Twitter should consider expanding the List limit beyond its current 500 user maximum.

Do you create and subscribe to lists yourself? Let us know in the comment section below.

Branding Social Media

Tony. The King. The Captain. The Gecko. They are all ferociously joining your ranks on social media sites. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when the M&M’s start tweeting. That’s right, I’m talking about brand mascots, and they have also jumped on the social media bandwagon.

Mascots have been used for decades to increase brand awareness and create a more personal connection between consumer and business. Mostly relegated to meet and greets and traditional media, mascots haven’t had much exposure to status updates and 180 character limits. Until now.

With sites like Facebook and Twitter, brands now have a place to create a more personal and interactive relationship with consumers by using their mascot. The brand mascots that people have come to know and love are able to show off their unique personalities, while still promoting their company. Utilizing the mascot on social media allows companies to bridge the gap between professionalism and approachability.

Beth Mansfield, director of public relations for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, (whose mascot is Happy Star) puts it nicely, “With social media you have to be engaging and have a one-on-one voice. It’s much easier to have that one voice be Happy Star instead of the marketing department of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. If we signed our Facebook posts ‘from the marketing department,’ that would be a little awkward.”

Some of the more recent social media mascot campaigns include the ReuniteM Campaign with M&M’s, and Flo, the Progressive Insurance Girl. The ReuniteM campaign is offering consumers a chance to win prizes for finding the five M&M characters together. You just have to buy selected packages of M&M’s milk chocolate candies and look for all the five characters printed under the wrapper. The candy brand has about 2.2million fans on Facebook, where the “yellow” M&M posts updates.

Flo, the Progressive Insurance mascot, has also become increasingly social. She has her own Facebook page separate from Progressive Insurance. With over 3 million likes, her fan page allows people to interact with Flo’s character, while gaining exposure for Progressive.

I’m sure more and more brands will recognize the potential social media has for increasing mascot value, and in turn, increasing product value. It’s a great way to have consumers connect with the often original and entertaining spokespeople, cartoons and characters of companies. Now if only I could Facebook chat the Aflac duck...

Isn't it Ironic?

Alanis Morissette describes irony best in her 1995 hit song "Ironic" (click here to spark your memory). Yesterday I mentioned my initial disappointment in Facebook's restricted page design capabilities. Well what do you think I stumbled across today? News that now you can customize your page! Sit back, relax, and let Alanis serenade you while reading further.

Access to page designs is based on your Klout score. This is a measurement of your online influence -- the amount of interactions and visits your page and posts receive. The higher your influence, the higher your score. Simple, right? As mentioned in my previous blog, Facebook is great at seeing the bigger picture. The bigger picture in this case is the ability for companies to get free publicity through high Klout scores.

Company Facebook pages are able to create page designs that are available to users with high Klout scores. The higher the Klout score, the more designs available. The organizations can create designs that promote their brand. For instance, Audi has a background with a picture of the LeMans.

When someone gains access to the backgrounds and applies them to their page, anyone who visits their page will see the images. So if a user applied the LeMans image to their page, everyone who visits will see the product and be exposed to Audi's brand.

To add further irony to this post, companies hardly do any work to gain the publicity! The user works to increase their Klout score, only to benefit their organization and gain an eye-catching page. What a win-win situation!

Facebook Getting Their Hands in Yet Another Industry

Six years ago I received an email saying I was invited to join Facebook -- yes, back when you had to be invited to be on the site. After much contemplation I decided to make the big switch from MySpace to Facebook. I remember being so confused and having no idea what to do with the site. It took me a long time to adjust to the site, and as someone who is in love with color I had to learn to appreciate the simple color pallet provided.

Facebook has come so far in the last five-some years. Now anyone can join the network: people, companies, products . . . heck, my cousin's cat even has a profile. Advertisers have caught onto the site's potential and now post ads on sidebars that are user-specific. This is one of Facebook's biggest money-makers, but they have another idea in the works that will make the site even more attractive.

The site is teaming up with Spotify and creating a Music Dashboard. This tool will allow users to listen to their favorite music just like other sites currently available. What sets this music stream apart from the others is that users will be able to view what their friends are listening to in real time. Users will even be able to sync up their playlists and listen to the same songs at the same time.

This is yet another example of Facebook's constant innovation. The Music Dashboard may not directly bring in profits, but it will keep people from going to other sites in order to listen to music. This additional time on the network will expose people to more advertisements, indirectly creating profits. Facebook has done a great job at looking past the immediate results and seeing the big picture -- something everyone can learn from.