IT WORKS! --??

Yes, you have read the headline correctly - "IT WORKS!" What I am I speaking of? Social Media Marketing of course. Well this is what a new study suggests (http://bit.ly/bW1Ywb).

I do how ever have a bone to pick. A comment to provide etc.

The numbers look great “60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower.” Not only that, but an “impressive 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of.”

Now reality - why the heck would I or anyone else become a follower of a brand and then not recommend it or buy it when possible. Why would someone waste their time looking up how to follow a brand if they were not already a fan of that particular brand. Even if these folks did not follow a brand on a Social Media site they would probably still recommend or buy the brand per the percentages above. Reason - because they made an emotional tie through prior history that drove them to want to follow in the first place. For example; I own a Canon G9 and have owned other Canon cameras. Because I made an emotional investment into research, paying a significant amount and usage I have a bias. So yes, I will more than likely recommend Canon first, but here is the kicker - I have also made positive comments on other brands - Nokia, Sony, Lieca etc., but my preference is Canon. So would my attitude change just because I follow Canon on Facebook? Probably not.

We want so much to brand Social Media Marketing a success and the reality is, it is when it comes to attacking socialites and increasing brand awareness. It is yet to translate into significant (traceable) increased sales. Yes, someone may twitter "hey found a cheap pair of Levi jeans at JCP", "WOW I found a great new coffee @ Starbucks - Mocha Cherry Coco Lux" or "Awesome new Hyundai on the road". At this point tweets have not been tracked and tied back to a business's sales to make a correlational relationship hypothesis. Once we can say – “On this date a significant amount of tweets/chatter was taking place on Mocha Cherry Coco Lux and Starbucks was able to deduce sale increases of X% on that particular date for this particular coffee across this particular area of the country”. Or when a message is put on Facebook about a Starbucks promotion – sales for that promotion show a significant increase in line with non-Social Media Marketing promotions. Once a bottom line result is established then we can say Social Media Marketing is a success story.

For now we need to temper our excitement for Social Media Marketing. I do however believe it will be successful, but I also believe the current formats (Facebook etc. ) will change quite a bit before success can be determined. I also do not believe twitter will survive in its current format. It is a fad and like most fads, will die.