Social Media Likes Spur Product Engagement From Some Friends

June 14, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Asia-Pacific | Brand Metrics | Digital | Promotions, Coupons & Co-op | Social Media

Adobe-Consumer-Response-Friend-Product-Like-Social-Media-June2013Asked what they would do if they saw a friend like a product on social media or a social networking site, around 3 in 10 consumers from around the world said they would check out the product themselves, according to results from a survey from Adobe and Edelman Berland. The figures range from a low of 22% in the UK to a high of 39% in South Korea, with US respondents somewhere close to the mid-point of that range, at 29%. A friend’s product like would also cause upwards of 1 in 10 respondents to visit the product’s website or social media page.

In the US, UK, Germany, and the UK, 2% of respondents said their friend’s product like would lead them to purchase the product. That figure climbed to 3% among Australians and Japanese, and 5% among South Koreans. While that seems like a fairly small figure on the surface, it translates to fairly sizable incremental sales when taking into account the huge fan bases some brands now have. (New data showing the top 10 brand movers on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in May illustrate some of those numbers.)

Last year, an Ipsos survey found 1 in 5 Americans claiming to have bought a brand that a friend has followed on social media.

So how to get those likes? The Adobe research indicates consumers most often like brands on account of being regular purchasers of them, due to the brand’s style and personality, what it stands for, and because the company had a promotion. Within the US, promotions are the second-most important, behind the consumer being a regular customer of the brand.

Interestingly, much like separate results suggesting that marketers are more enamored by online advertising than consumers, the study suggests that marketers outpace consumers in social media usage and brand engagement. Overall, 79% of marketers responding to the study said they use social media, compared to 61% of consumers. And 60% of marketers reported having ever liked something on social media on behalf of a brand or product they enjoy, compared to 54% of consumers.

About the Data: The data points referenced above come from a study commissioned by Adobe, produced by research firm Edelman Berland and conducted as an online survey among a nationally representative sample of the population of each country. The study is based on interviews with 8,750 consumers and 1,750 professional marketers across the United States, Europe (United Kingdom, Germany, France) and Asia-Pacific (Japan, Australia, and South Korea). The research expands on the study Adobe initially executed in the United States in October 2012, which surveyed 1,000 consumers and 250 professional marketers to now include six additional countries. The margin of sampling error at the 95% confidence level is as follows:

U.S. (n=1,250): MOE = +/- 2.8% (October/November 2012)
U.K. (n=1,250): MOE = +/- 2.8% (October/November 2012)
Germany (n=1,250): MOE = +/- 2.8% (April 2013)
France (n=1,250): MOE = +/- 2.8% (April 2013)
Japan (n=1,250): MOE = +/- 2.8% (October/November 2012)
Australia (n=1,250): MOE = +/- 2.8% (October/November 2012)
South Korea (n=1,250): MOE = +/- 2.8% (April 2013)

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