Bad news for agencies pushing Facebook and Twitter as crucial to a brand’s strategy – a new study claims they are simply wasting their time, as nearly two-thirds of UK consumers don’t want to engage with businesses on social media.
The report, TNS’s Digital Life study, quizzed 72,000 consumers in 60 countries, and found the largest amount of hostility in developed markets. Overall, 57% of people living in these areas will shun brands on social media, rising to 60% in the US and 61% in the UK.
WPP-owned TNS suggests that businesses are wasting their time and money trying to reach people online and that a failure to carefully target them is resulting in ‘digital waste’. The Internet is packed with friendless Facebook accounts and blogs that no one reads.
According to the report, “the result is a huge volume of noise, which is polluting the digital world and making it harder for brands to be heard – presenting a major challenge for businesses trying to enter into a dialogue with consumers online”.
TNS chief development officer Matthew Froggatt said “misguided digital strategies” had led to brands setting up Facebook and blogs which failed to attract visitors.
He added: “Digital waste is the accumulation of thousands of brands rushing online without thinking who they want to talk to – and why. Many brands have recognised the vast potential audiences available to them on social networks; however they are failing to understand that these spaces belong to the consumer and their presence needs to be proportionate and justified.”
Although around half of those polled admit that social networks are a good place to learn about products, the research shows brands must harness digital more carefully if they are to use it to their advantage.
One of the biggest incentives to interacting with brands online is the presence of a special offer, says the study, with nearly two-thirds of consumers willing to engage with a brand online if there is a promotional offer at stake.
The findings will no doubt be studied closely by brands which have just signed up to Google+ Pages, designed to link brands with consumers, which launched earlier this week.
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