Study: Socnets prompting ad-related actions

Consumers want to participate in life via their favorite brands. That, according to a recent Performics study which indicates that consumers are not only connecting with friends and family via social networks, but they are also connecting, contributing and sharing with their favorite brands.

by Kristina Knight

"S-Net The Impact of Social Media" report finds that social media isn't just a stopping place for the consumer to interact with one another, consumers are also using social networks to interact with their favorite brands.

"Social networking has greatly contributed to the shift from strict consumerism to more lively, two-way participation between brands and everyday customers," said Daina Middleton, CEO of Performics. "More than a third of all respondents reported using a search engine to further learn after seeing an ad on a social networking site, for example, and more than a third think social networking sites are good sources of information about companies and products."

The report found:

• 80% of study respondents have an active Facebook account
• 67% report reconnecting with people they otherwise would not have
• 30% are accessing socnets via mobile device
• 39% of Twitter users 'retweet' or reply to tweets at least weekly

Social consumers are pushing their favorite brands' likeability to their social contacts. The report found that about half of Facebook users click ads to 'like' a brand; those 'likes' show up in wall posts and pages. Just over one-third of social networks report recommending products or services to the social network contacts and 37% report learning about a brand or product via a social network.

ROI Research conducted the report, which was sponsored by Performics; 3,000 US social network consumers were studied to reach the results.