Cone, Omnicom Group’s strategy arm, released some data from a recent survey measuring brand trust. This research claims that 93% of the 1092 Americans surveyed thought that companies should have a corporate presence on social media. It went further, citing 85% of those surveyed being open to interaction with companies within social media. The demographic breakdown favored young males and weathly individuals, which can be a sweetspot for some marketed brands.
While networks like Facebook and Myspace may be old news for well polished marketing firms representing highly branded labels, this study is suggesting that the time may be right for more conservative consumer industries to follow suit. If your company is consumer driven, tending towards younger male Americans or the affluent population, Cone is recommending you look at social media for your next marketing campaign.
It should be said that the study is a bit self serving, as Cone is a ‘strategy and communications agency’ with a presumed stake in the growth on online Brand Marketing. That doesn’t make the results any less intriguing. One of the best pull quotes I saw was this response from the surveyor to the question of what should Companies be doing in social networks:
Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
People, it can be really simple. Find out what the top ten customer questions are for sales, the top ten service calls for your product, wrap them up and build them into an interactive Facebook app. Don’t just spit out one line information or a support number either, if the solution could be automated for the customer, take the added steps to do it.
Your customers don’t want you to be their Best Friend Forever. But even one answer to a ‘Hey, can you help me with this’ will make you 10x more valuable than a crate of flying sheep.
photo attributed to b_d_solis @ Flickr CC
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