Branding in the Social Age

In a joint presentation, comScore's Linda Abraham and Buddy Media's Mike Lazerow explained some of the best practices for establishing a brand through social channels.

"All brands know they need to have a social presence," the presenters noted, "But, what does it mean for their business?"

Abraham and Lazerow pointed to research showing that a "share" on Facebook can lead to $2.10 in incremental sales, and drives up the average conversion rate to 10.2 percent per share.

In addition to having a significant impact on sales, adding social media to digital marketing campaigns can increase brand recognition, they note, since "social media is the No. 1 online activity today," accounting for almost 20 percent of the time consumers spend online. With 1.2 billion people around the globe using social networks, the marketing method offers more exposure than instant messaging and email.

The presenters note that having a brand fan page is one of the first steps to running an effective social campaign, but companies will need to push consumers to share their enthusiasm with others as well. "The majority of brand impressions occur throughout Facebook - not on the fan page," they say.

There are three steps in social media marketing: cut-through, or the brand messages that fans receive in their news feed; engagement, or what fans say about a brand or product's news feed content; and amplification, where fans share the content they like with others in their network. However, the presenters say, most brands skip over those "intermediary steps," and instead think the process only involves getting fans and then seeing a marketing ROI.

An infographic from AYTM Market Research describes how consumers interact with brands on social media. The data indicates that 32 percent of consumers prefer receiving brand updates through the short posts on Facebook and Twitter, while 25 percent of respondents said their least favorite method was through podcasts and audio.