Publish in a wall... and you´ll sell a 8% more!

 

 

IE Master in Digital Marketing News Last week we discussed a lot in Campaign Management about what should Facebook do with its advertising campaigns, if they were effective or not, and if it would repeat the Beacon failure. And on Thursday, I received a press release of Nielsen Online explaining that if you publish something in the wall in Facebook, your friends will tend to click through and buy the product you recommend. The question is: do you like to have advertising campaigns in your Facebook wall? Not me thanks, although I don´t feel to be the average consumer. And ok, all the studies show that consumers trust their friends and peers more than an ad or a recommendation when they have to buy something. So, if your friend says: “hey, buy this videogame, it´s awesome”, then… you purchase that one and not any other… This is the theory, but I don´t know if it´s 100% real. And again, this is only my personal opinion.

 

 

The Nielsen Online conclusion is that buying social media does not have anything to do with buying online media. Marketers should understand advertising “not just in terms of paid media, but as how social advocacy contributes to campaigns”. And according to this study… it´s a lot! 8% of the customers tend to buy a product if it´s being recommended by a friend or a peer in it´s Facebook wall. But the numbers didn´t come out of the blue. The report was made with the opinion of almost 800.000 Facebook users and analyzing more than 125 advertising campaigns. The results were that not only the purchase intention increased, but also the brand awareness and the recall.

 

 

So just think about it: “social advocacy and earned impressions can impact consumers in three important ways: by an ad (ad recall), to take away its message (awareness), and to increase their interest in making a purchase (purchase intent). The next step is to expand this understanding to offline sales and long-term brand value”. Nielsen dixit. Do you agree?

Ok, I agree, but again, I hate to be a fan of a company in Facebook, I hate to give my personal details to any company… I´m in a social mood, not in a purchase mood! Although this maybe will evolve in the future. I would only admit some personalized ads if I´m a member of a group that involves some commercial issues or… if you at last agree to be a fan of a product or a company and you want some discounts or good offers from it. A lot of people do? Why can´t I? Not now, thanks.

 

 

So by now, I´m not a good customer for Facebook: I´d prefer to run my own real farm (Farmville, no, thanks), I like real flowers, real chocolates and… real beers! I prefer somebody to phone me and congratulate me personally for my birthday, not virtually. Strange woman? In the actual social networks scheme, of course I am.

 

 

 

Also, you can have a look to this Youtube video recorded by Marketingdirecto.com It´s the presentation of Joost van Nispen, president of the Spanish ICEMD, in Hoyesmarketing. I´m sorry, it´s in Spanish. But what I liked most is: don´t you prefer a real beer than a virtual one? Of course!