Brand Engagement Research

An engagement report has just been released which shows and explains how brands are increasing engagement on the web. It is worth checking out, the summary explains key learnings on brand engagement

1. Engagement via social media IS important — and we CAN quantify it.
   The ENGAGEMENTdb quantitatively demonstrates a statistically significant correlation between social media engagement and the two most meaningful financial performance metrics – revenue and profit. Emphasize quality, not just quantity.
2. What’s in it for me? The ENGAGEMENTdb quantitatively demonstrates a statistically significant correlation between social media engagement and the two most meaningful financial performance metrics – revenue and profit.
3. Emphasize quality, not just quantity.
   The ENGAGEMENTdb Report shows that engagement is more than just setting up a blog and letting viewers post comments; it’s more than just having a Facebook profile and having others write on your wall. Rather, it’s keeping your blog content fresh and replying to comments;it’s building your friends network and updating your profile status.
   Don’t just check the box; engage with your customer audience.
4. To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job.
   The best practice interviews have a common theme — social media is no longer the responsibility of a few people in the organization. Instead,it’s important for everyone across the organization to engage with customers in the channels that make sense — a few minutes each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touch points.
5. Doing it all may not be for you — but you must do something.
   The optimal social media marketing strategy will depend on a variety of factors, including your industry. If your most valuable customers do not depend on or trust social media as a communication medium, or if your organization is resistant to engagement in some channels, you will have to start smaller and slower. But start you must, or risk falling far behind other brands, not only in your industry, but across your customers’ general online experience.
6. Find your sweet spot.
   Engagement can’t be skin-deep, nor is it a campaign that can be turned on and off. True engagement means full engagement in the channels where you choose to invest. Thus, choose carefully and advocate strongly to acquire the resources and support you will need to succeed. If you are resource-constrained, it is better to be consistent and
   participate in fewer channels than to spread yourself too thin.

Overall the Top 10 brands for engagement are

1. Starbucks (127)
2. Dell (123)
3. eBay (115)
4. Google (105)
5. Microsoft (103)
6. Thomson Reuters (101)
7. Nike (100)
8. Amazon (88)
9. SAP (86)
10. Tie – Yahoo!/Intel (85)

You can find details of how these companies approach brand engagement and also look at the information from an industry sector – worth a look for anyone looking to use social media to grow their brand.