Many consumers who follow brands on social media sites expect something in return, such as a good deal on the product or service; however, a recent study demonstrated that some social media users are also looking for a form of deeper engagement.
A MarketingSherpa survey indicated that 65% of daily social media users followed or friended a brand in order to learn about special sales. On the other hand, only 46% of max connectors – those with 500 or more social connections – followed or friended a brand for this purpose. Rather, max connectors preferred to follow a brand to learn about new products, features and services.
Another survey by Razorfish indicated that 43.5% of consumers followed a brand on Twitter in order to learn more about exclusive deals and offerings. Other reasons consumers followed brands were because they were a current customer, or the brand posted interesting and entertaining content.
Source: eMarketer; January 22, 2010
