
Digital Marketing
Analysis finds social media used by less than 4% of people, while mobile phone connections are equivalent to less than 60% of Malawians.
SOCIAL MEDIA
By our News Team | 2022
If used correctly, ‘owned’ media can boost bottom-line sales while also enhancing consumer engagement, Dutch researchers find.
Researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam) in the Netherlands have published new research that examines the impact of owned social media on customer engagement and sales.
The study, forthcoming in the American Marketing Association’s peer-reviewed Journal of Marketing, is authored by Georgia Liadeli, Francesca Sotgiu, and Peeter W.J. Verlegh.
Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
With more than 3-billion social media users worldwide, brands have long recognised the importance of establishing a strong social media presence. Recent surveys indicate that over 91% of firms will increase social media marketing budgets in the next three years and that 62% of consumers believe brands will succeed in the long run only if they have a strong social media presence.
The content that brands create and share through their own social media channels is commonly called ‘owned media’ – as opposed to ‘earned media’ (other people talking about your brand) or ‘paid media’ (paying for your brand to reach an audience).
“While brands are increasingly investing in owned social media, many are unsure about the overall return on their social media presence and ask how they can design more effective social media campaigns along the purchase funnel,” observes Liadeli.
In other words, firms ask the following questions:
Research based on 86 studies in 17 countries
This new study about the impact of owned social media on social media engagement and sales is based on 86 studies, conducted between 2011-2021, that cover 31 industries, 14 platforms and 17 countries.
“Contrary to managerial beliefs that owned social media are primarily an engagement tool, we observe a stronger impact of owned social media on sales. There may be many consumers who ‘like’ individual posts or take the time to leave a comment or share the post from their personal accounts, but brands may be underestimating the impact of their owned social media by focusing on such easy-to-measure metrics,” Sotgiu explains.
To create engagement via social content, companies are often advised to include a question at the end of their posts or create a contest.
“However,” says Verlegh, “our study shows that the most effective content to stimulate social media engagement is to focus on emotions, such as with funny or touching posts. But if the goal is to stimulate sales, social media content should focus on communicating information and product benefits and steer away from the emotional.”
The study provides the following guidelines for Chief Marketing Officers and social media managers:
Analysis finds social media used by less than 4% of people, while mobile phone connections are equivalent to less than 60% of Malawians.
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