Social media is becoming widely adopted by businesses of all sizes, yet one of the biggest struggles has been calculating the ROI of these campaigns. In response to this struggle, Syncapse, a global leader in digital consulting and measurement with a focus on social media, has released a report that dives deep into the data.
As part of their study, Syncapse surveyed 4,000 fans of twenty of the top brands on Facebook. The brands included Nokia, BlackBerry, Victoria’s Secret, Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Xbox, Axe, Playstation and McDonald’s. The focus group was asked why they were fans of those brands and about their past and future purchasing behavior. Syncapse then used these responses to estimate the monetary value of each fan over time.
Below are the key findings of the report:
- The average value of a Facebook Fan is $136.38.
- Facebook Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using a specific brand.
- 68% of Facebook Fans indicate that they are highly likely to recommend a product they are a fan of to their friends.
- 81% of Facebook Fans report feelings a connection/empathy with the brand
It is important to note that the results also showed how the value of a fan can vary widely based on the fan’s participation. For example, a highly active fan of Coca-Cola can have a value as high as $316.78 and an inactive fan can be valued as low as $0 with the average fan having a value of $137.84. While one can argue that a survey of 4,000, out of the potential 500 million, Facebook users is not statistically valid, directionally the results indicate that Facebook fans can have a significant positive impact on revenue.
The thing is that, probably, Facebook Fans that are worth that much and engage towards brands like this, are already part of the brand’s “tribes” [Seth Godin].
From my point of view, it is more about making great products (like Nike) or/and establishing great AND relevant marketing campaign (like Victoria’s Secret) that will make a significant crowd of great value for a business. There are a lot of ‘crappy’ FanPage too where fans are probably worthless.
Just look at Apple which is probably the greatest example: where are they on social media? Engaged fan of the brand are engaged fan of the brand. That’s it. Facebook is only a great platform to connect with them. Facebook Fans are just probably bigger fans than others.
I bought a lot of Adidas stuff, more than most people I know before I was a Facebook Fan and I don’t buy more of them because I’m their fan. I’m probably only more engage toward the brand and a more loyal customer over time because now they have the opportunity to remind me we I like them through relevant branded content.
Before investing in social media, a lot of company should invest in R&D, building competitive advantage and positioning themselves efficiently on the customers’ mind. Then, they’ll see that real engaged customers have great value… Facebook FanPage or not.