We have all heard the phrase that people trust friends rather than companies and this has led to brands wanting to show their personality, networking with people rather than selling to them. But is it working?
Well research from eMarketer on Social Network marketing would say yes…
They quote examples such as

Brand pages and applications can be vehicles to deliver coupons and offers to consumers to drive trials, store traffic and response. A July 2009 Starbucks promotion, for example, distributed coupons for a free pastry via Facebook and other social outlets. The chain was soon one of the top trending topics on …read more

Social networking is growing in importance within the business world. Emarketer has published social networking research showing that a third of CEO’s are on Facebook, almost a third also see it as important as are using it to build their brands.

There are risks with social networking though as the research shows. Social networking can be bad for your brands health! But I think this happens when companies ignore rather than embrace social networks, when they ban people from using them rather than educating people on the power of the networks on their brands, when companies don’t realise that brand engagement …read more