Are you a follower?

There are many theories that circulate in industry circle over consumer behaviour but of particular interest is one of recent which suggests that people are more likely to buy brands their friends like. And from this, is tracking their social interactions the most effective way to target them accurately?

Let’s face it, if you need it it’s probably out there. The web has become so profoundly social and consumers share increasing amounts of information across various websites, that you can forgive marketers salivating at the power that’s possible.

Now, it would seem, a new sort of US companies have emerged who feel they have finally found a method of tapping into this wealth of data through a process of licensing data from third parties, largely social media sites, and tracing consumers’ social connections in order to target ads towards those most powerfully connected to brand fans (as touched upon in the last blog update).

It’s pretty easy to work out what they can then do. Marketers have begun to let the data tell them who to target, as opposed to past methods of them telling the the data who to target. They have apparently proven that by understanding who’s purchasing and who’s a fan of the brand, people strongly connected to it socially are highly likely to share the same interests, to purchase those same products and have the same gender, income etc. It appears that the social connection could be a very powerful predictor indeed.

However, unlike current ad platforms offered on the likes of Facebook, where companies target individuals based on their profile, social targeting focuses on targeting people based on their friends, not their interests.

Nevertheless, there is a certain amount of skepticism that surrounds this. There are those who feel that 99.9% of what we browse on the web does not fit into any commercial or behavioural category, meaning attempts to scale that inevitably include a load of irrelevant information.

Irrespective of either of these standpoints, what nobody can deny is the fact that online engagement can be extremely beneficial and enlightening for companies who wish to develop or maintain a strong brand culture. Don’t shy away from an online presence, understand and engage with it by developing a well-thought out digital pr strategy for the future.