How Do Consumers Use And Value Online And Social Media During Purchases?

For anyone who’s still struggling with whether and how to incorporate social media into marketing campaigns, here’s a somewhat obvious, yet brilliant, way to determine how consumers use online channels on their path to purchase —just ask them!

That’s what Radius Global Market Research did, and the results contain some compelling lessons for marketers developing online media strategies.

The survey questions centered on what kinds of products consumers researched prior to making a decision to buy and which platforms they used.  As in earlier studies, respondents indicated that online research played a major role in helping them make informed decisions.  This was particularly true for big ticket items, or products for which people have strong emotional investments.

Here are a few salient findings that caught my eye:

What The Harlem Shake Teaches Us About Authenticity

Remember playing “telephone” when you were a kid –you know, the game that starts when one person whispers a message (the more complicated the better) to another, and then that person whispers the message to the next person, and so on through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group?

As I’m sure you recall, the telephone game usually ends with something hilarious because errors almost always accumulate in the retellings, and when the message is finally announced by the last player, it’s typically quite different than it was at the start.

Apparently, the Harlem Shake, a dance which is the genesis of the internet’s newest meme, has suffered its own version of the “telephone” treatment.

According to Mashable, the dances spreading like wildfire online bear little resemblance to the real Harlem Shake, which originated in uptown Manhattan in the early ‘80s.

All of which brings up important questions for today’s digital marketers: How can brands maintain authenticity when ads or ideas go viral? What can you do to ensure your campaign doesn’t take on a life of its own as it gets shared, re-shared and then shared, again online?

Here are a few fundamental tips to keep in mind:

Most Companies Still Not Measuring Social Media ROI

I find the continued unwillingness of some business executives to embrace social media to be, in the words of young Alice in Wonderland, “curiouser and curiouser.” Could it be a reluctance to go down what they perceive to be a “rabbit hole?”

Although a new study conducted seems to indicate that more and more corporate leaders do believe in the importance of social media platforms  from a business perspective, with more than half stating they expect to increase their social media budget in the future, the percentages take a nosedive once survey questions focused on strategy and implementation.  That’s surprising, especially considering rising customer expectations of corporate social media responsiveness and other research demonstrating how businesses can use social media platforms to improve their bottom lines.

With more than 400 responses from management personnel at the director or above level, each of whom stated they were social media decision-makers or influencers in their companies, the findings from this study were indeed a mixed bag.  On the plus side: 

Study: Twitter Now The Fastest Growing Social Platform In The World

Once considered by some to be a passing fad with a short shelf life, Twitter is now not only part of the social media establishment, but the leader of all other social media platforms in terms of growth, according to a recent report released by Global Web Index.

At a time when overall internet usage seems to be stabilizing, Twitter continues to experience phenomenal growth, both in the US and globally.  The GWI study, which mostly compared Twitter activity between the first and second halves of 2012, also included this staggering statistic:

The number of active Twitter users has grown an astounding 714 percent since July 2009.

So much for a passing fad!

Twitter By the Numbers

Here are some of the GWI’s most recent findings:

• The total number of active Twitter accounts grew 40 percent worldwide during the last six months of 2012 alone, while Facebook and Google+ grew about 35 and 25 percent, respectively.
• More than one-third (36 percent) of the global internet population has a Twitter account.
• Nearly 60 percent of all Twitter account holders Tweeted monthly by the end of 2012, up from 50 percent at the end of the second quarter.

Changing Content of Tweets

OK, so maybe in its early and adolescent days, people frequently used Twitter to share inconsequential updates like what we had for lunch, etc.  But, like the platform itself, the content of Tweets has evolved and matured.  In fact, this study found that comments about daily activities or regarding a friend’s post showed the lowest percentage of growth last year.  Instead, users are tapping Twitter more and more to organize events, get recommendations on products, entertainment and brands, provide feedback (both positive and negative) on companies, products and services and share  links to photos, videos and articles.

Today, organizations better understand how to plug into the power of Twitter. More companies, groups and causes now integrate social media platforms into their marketing strategies. They’ve developed innovative (and effective!) ways to engage their followers, offer customer service, complete market research, use hashtags to nurture a sense of community, etc.  As a result, Twitter use has changed dramatically from just a few years ago.

Changing Twitter Demographics

Coke’s New Anti-Obesity Ad Campaign

Let’s be honest. Health and fitness are not the first things that come to mind when most of us think about Coca-Cola.

However, The Coca-Cola Company is hoping a new ad campaign will change all that. As revealed in a recent press release, “The Coca-Cola Company is reinforcing its efforts to work together with American communities, business and government leaders to find meaningful solutions to the complex challenge of obesity.”

In other words, Coca-Cola wants to be seen as a partner in combating obesity, which the CDC now calls a national epidemic and a major contributor to some of the leading causes of death in the US, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer.

Of course, in the past, Coca-Cola –along with other sugar-sweetened beverage producers –has been widely seen as just the opposite. In fact, studies like this one in The New England Journal of Medicine have contributed to a growing body of evidence showing a direct correlation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and obesity.

All of which begs the question:

Can a company that may be contributing to a “national epidemic” successfully re-brand itself as a company that’s helping to find “meaningful solutions” to that same epidemic?

I suppose only time will tell. But over the past few weeks, criticism of Coca-Cola has been swift . . . and harsh.
The centerpiece of the campaign is a two-minute video, “Coming Together,” which debuted in mid-January. Again, from the Coca-Cola Company’s press release: