Forrester has released a new Report interestingly titled “The Facebook Factor”. According to the new report Facebook fans are much more likely to purchase, consider, and recommend the brands that they engage with on Facebook than non-fans. The new Forrester study aims at determining how brand loyalty on Facebook affects purchasing habits.
With a population well in excess of 845 million, Facebook’s Pages are used by brands to reach to a wider audience than ever before. Since Facebook with its massive popularity provides a platform for sharing information with your friends, family and colleagues it automatically becomes a platform to endorse one’s products and services, because these products and services are likely to be recommended by their users to the people in their Facebook friend lists. And brands around the world have tried to cash in on the openness that the Facebook platform offers to them in reaching their target audience.
Writing more about the report on the Forrester blog Gina Sverdlov, a consumer insights analyst at Forrester says that the report aims at answering the pressing question –
“How much more likely are Facebook fans to purchase, consider, and recommend brands, compared with non-fans?”
She further adds that Forrester has used logistic regression modelling to find out these facts. In the report, Forrester have used four major brands as case studies to assess the Facebook factor. These four brands being Coca-Cola, Wall Mart BestBuy, and BlackBerry(Research In Motion [RIM]). Here’s an example from the report establishing the fact that, Facebook fans of Best Buy are about twice as likely to purchase from and recommend Best Buy as non-fans.
The report is a great pointer to how Facebook – the Social Media platform, can actually be used by brands to add more value and insight to their business by engaging in a point-of-contact manner with their direct conusmers / customers. The report compared the impact of engaging with these brands on Facebook with the impact of other driving factors of brand engagement on several metrics used for comparison purposes. As an example, being a Facebook fan has almost double the impact on purchasing from Walmart as having a Walmart near a consumer’s home.
The report establishes the fact that Facebook fans are more likely to buy (and spend more on), consider, and recommend the brands they engage with on Facebook shows that the purchase process is not a dead-end road. Being on Facebook actually enhances your chances of marketing your Product / Services to the right people with minimal fuss.
“The Facebook Factor” amply suits the statement that brand engagement is a driver of loyalty and purchase for companies, and Facebook is a great channel for advocates to share brand experiences with others.
