In order to be successful in social media marketing, marketers must be socially dedicated too, say researchers at SocialBakers.com. Their latest Socially devoted report and corresponding infographic shows that brands on Facebook have increased their speed and volume when responding to fan interactions with their Company Page. SocialBakers reports have reported some interesting facts about Q4 2012 findings.
The report observed that, volume of questions posted to Facebook has increased by 26% from Q2 to Q4 2012. Interestingly, average brand response time on Facebook is now 13.7 hours, compared to 20.9 hours in Q2 2012. Also, brands answer 55% of questions posed to them on Facebook; in the second quarter of 2012, only 30% were answered. And, Airlines, finance and telecom remain the three most responsive industries, though their positions have shifted since Q2 2012.
“In the last year, there has been a shift away from brands simply seeking to collect the highest number of fans. What is important is how you interact and how you serve them,” said Jan Rezab, CEO of SocialBakers.com.
Social devotion is measured using a number of factors, including how the Facebook page is set up, whether brands respond to fan questions at least 65% of the time, and the rate of response time.
Also, alcohol saw +506.5% of improvement in its response rate compared to Q2 2012. In another report from socialbakers observed that, Facebook Pages which included health and alcohol saw the greatest gains in terms of fans. Alcohol saw 13% (20,000) average fan growth and was the second fastest growing industry on Facebook.
Health, electronics and alcohol showed highest growth of fan counts from July through September in 2012. Health saw up 19% and alcohol and electronics saw up 13%. In addition, health industry was at the first position in the relative growth by number of fans with 19% (14,000 new fans) and net increase of pages in industry by 28% that is up 54 new pages.
In addition, automotive industry recorded 477.2% improvement in terms of response rate compared to Q2 2012 while, average page size by number of fans was increased by just 7% in last September 2012.
Fashion industry which saw, just 12% net increase of new pages in industry in September 2012 is now in the fourth position in terms of response rate. Retail and telecom industries are showing negligible rate of response to the consumers by 26.8% and 17.5% respectively.
Another study on Social Devotion observed that, 61% of Facebook users say at some point, they’ve taken a voluntary break from using Facebook for several weeks or more. Of those who took this Facebook-vacation, 21% of the respondents said that they had a lack of time for Facebook. Other top reasons were a lack of interest in the site itself, a feeling that it was a waste of time or the content was not relevant, and too much drama, gossip, negativity has made them take a break. While, Just 4% reported they’d taken a break due to concerns about privacy, spam, or advertising.
While breaks from Facebook may seem an interesting trend, the effect on brands should be negligible. Facebook’s latest earnings report shows a 25% increase in monthly active users and 28% more daily active users, compared to the same period in 2011.
