In our recent review of metrics on social media, we were struck by the huge disparity in fan base and followers between retailers, even within the same category. Some large retailers command hundreds of thousands of fans – even millions – while others, of competitive stature and digital presence, have only a few thousand. Not only that, the rate of fan growth varies greatly as well. Why?
According to a study mentioned in a recent emarketer article, “in 2009, large majorities of consumers wanted a variety of opportunities to support brands that were active in cause marketing, and by July 2010 they were even more enthusiastic about ways companies could get involved.”
We’ve noted previously that more and more brands are attempting to feed this national moral hunger through cause-related marketing efforts, and to that end, many are building awareness of such efforts through social media.
A perfect example is Kraft Foods.
The June special issue of Fast Company featured "The 100 Most Creative People in Business". The section about JP Morgan Chase Foundation's President, Kimberly Davis, caught my attention instantly because her story helps illustrate some of our own findings here at Media Logic about brand engagement, and similar transparency versus authenticity obstacles that we have encountered with our financial clients and observed in our recent research whitepaper.
How much is a Facebook fan worth?
There has been a lot of discussion about this topic lately, among brands and marketers alike, that are struggling to quantify the value of social marketing efforts. Here in Albany, a local car dealership has been advertizing a $50 incentive to become their fan on Facebook. Another company has come up with a formula that they consider to be a scientific method of putting a dollar value on a fan, while other marketers rebut this formula as inaccurate.
So, who is right?
