Eager Bunny

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http://wearemba.com/2011/02/11/another-post-about-the-value-of-social-media/# 

Helen Brains from MBA @ Mediacom comments on the whole discussion around the value of the fan. What comes first the fan or the value?

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o2 educate the nation

O2 are launching a new website to help with exam revision:https://www.o2learn.co.uk/

On this website , O2 claim they want to "help connect people to great teaching [...] building a video library of great revision lesson".

Rather randomly, they've put together a Valentine's day promotion entitled "We love teachers' valentine's day promotion" to encourage teachers to upload their videos. "The first 50 teachers to upload a film on Valentine’s day will win a £50 Amazon voucher."

Telecomms brands such as T-Mobile or Orange (and probably O2) can't legally target teenagers and kids below 16 year-old but anyone over 13 can join this platform. Encouraging recommendation from teachers looks like a clever way for O2 to indirectly target the young audience.

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Eager bunny

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Best Facebook Brand Pages

Shona Button from Facebook gave us a list of brands she thinks are doing a good job using their Facebook page:

Marks and Spencers

– http://www.facebook.com/MarksandSpencer?ref=ts

Great way of combining DR and branding messages. Also good at giving their fans exclusive offers before anyone else. Consistently update their tabs with content for the season. Timed posts to promote their £10 offer for evening meals has proved particularly effective. 171,000 likes.

Starbucks UK

- http://www.facebook.com/starbucksuk

Great at rewarding loyal customers with offers. Use their tabs in conjunction with on and offline campaigns. Especially like the way they are constantly interacting with their fans on photos, comments etc. In my opinion they have found just the right balance between updating about the product specifically to drive people in store and exclusive content around Starbucks as entertainment/info for the fans. 354,000 likes

The X-Factor

- http://www.facebook.com/TheXFactor

Exclusive content for fans – but what I really like about this page is that they actively post during the show getting users to engage with the brand live during airtime. This is definitely something Sky Sports, for example, could do more of when showing premier league matches or other sporting events. 1.9 million likes.

Skittles UK

- http://www.facebook.com/skittles.uk

Great example of engaging 2million + fans with content that is simple and fun. Good example of a page that is currently trying to engage an older audience with a different tone of voice than 6 months ago. Used the Facebook fans to control how many skittles were poured over someone as part of an event for Facebook fans – great example of letting Facebook fans control a campaign. 2.2 million likes.

Max Factor -

http://www.facebook.com/MaxFactorUK

This page gets a mention because it has a shop app – something we are seeing more and more of. 28,000 likes.

Vauxhall Corsa -

http://www.facebook.com/vauxhallcorsa

Great use of offline media using its recognisable Pop Art Imagery as an app for users to update their profile pics. Clever use of posts that are non brand related and useful. 24,771 likes.

Easy Jet -

http://www.facebook.com/easyJet

Ability to book a flight and plan your holiday on Facebook. Excellent example of a brand posting relevant and exclusive offers to fans as well as communicating news effectively – Ash cloud updates and airport closures due to weather obviously extremely useful. 39,775 Likes.

The Skinny Cow UK -

http://www.facebook.com/skinnycowuk

Picked this page as the brand uses Facebook as its digital hub. It’s also an example of a page that has great tonality and is consistent with posts. Great use of content and assets (video and photos). 48,000 Likes.

Disney Pixar -

http://www.facebook.com/DisneyPixar (global page)

Really nice example of a content brand posting clips/photos and captions from different films. Simple but effective. 4.8 million Likes.

Aviva -

http://www.facebook.com/Aviva

Have only just launched their global and local pages – a good page to follow, as they have launched with an excellent app that allows you to donate your picture for a chance to appear on a building somewhere in the world. A charity donation is made for every upload. 26,000 Likes

Ode to the Commode

- http://www.facebook.com/odetothecommode (US page)

A fun and light hearted one. The best example we have to date of a low interest product (toilet cleaner) coming to life on the platform. Just the right amount of fun (games and apps including flush a friend down the toilet) and product updates. Over 50,000 Likes so far.

Alton Towers -

http://www.facebook.com/altontowersresort

Relatively new page but currently running an exclusive Facebook only offer to get numbers of Like’s up. 500,000 + Likes

Vodafone McLaren Sponsorship

- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vodafone-McLaren-Mercedes-The-Official-Page/12254981412

Great use of sponsorship assets with links to Merchandise on the page. Exclusive breaking

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Orange and T-Mobile's UK divisions announce plans to launch a new chain of Everything Everywhere stores on the high street

with five-store pilot to gauge customer reaction:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/10/orange-t-mobile 

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Facebook fans spend on average $71.84 more per year than non fans

A research from Syncapse conducted in June 2010 brought some useful answers to the $1m question: how to quantify the value of a Facebook fan.

Syncapse has adopted a unique approach to understanding the financial returns that social members on Facebook provide to a business. Facebook fan ROI can be understood though a knowledge of key performance indicators that have traditionally led to increased sales and profit in business and the key differences between Facebook users who have opted to "fan" a brand and those who have not.

The research identified 5 main contributors to the value of a fan: 1- product spending 2- brand loyalty 3- propensity to recommend 4- brand affinity 5- earned media value

A panel of 4000 people were questioned and 20 top brands were examined:

Nokia, BlackBerry, Motorola, Secret, Gillette, Axe, Dove, Victoria’s Secret, Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola, Oreo, Skittles, Nutella, Red Bull, Pringles, Playstation, Xbox, Starbucks, and McDonald’s.  

Here is the summary of their key findings:

• A fan spends more : On average, fans spend an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans compared to those who are not fans. However this value can vary vastly between brands (i.e Blackberry= $83.98 and Nokia=$180.87) and fans.

 • A fan is more loyal : Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using the brand.

• A fan is more likely to recommend your brand: Fans are 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a fanned product to their friends.

• The average value of a fan over 20 top brands is $136.38. This value varies significantly depending on the level of engagement of the fans. Some are very active while some are completly unengaged.

More importantly this research offers a methodology and a clear set of variables for brands to better understand  and measure the value of their fanbase.  Loyalty, Spend, Recommendation, Fan Acquisition Cost, Affinity, and Media Value are the key factors that impact fan value.  Brand that focused strategies often yield more positive fan engagement and overall community health than an ad hoc approach. (see examples in following article)

Tim Lawrence, Head of Digital Strategy @ Mediacom commented:

A key thing to point out with the value of a Facebook fan research is understanding the cause and effect of fans spending more money with a brand than non-fans. If someone Likes a brand within Facebook its highly likely they will be spending with the brand anyway, Facebook has just given people a way to express which brands they prefer.

At present it's difficult to ascertain what effect Facebook brand pages actually contribute to purchases that a fan may have made, the reason why many people join a brand page is to receive more information about a brand. Although an increase in sales may be a by-product (or effect) of this action, liking a Facebook page is unlikely to be the cause.

Basically, its what you do with the page and fans that count rather than a direct relationship between fan and revenue. Undoubtedly Facebook is a strong option, alongside other social media platforms, for clients that are looking to engage their customers or audience in a ongoing dialogue but as for an incremental sales driver there are many more factors at play in a decision than just Facebook.

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This blog is platform for us to share anything interesting and relevant to the world of media/ advertising and of marketing in general.