Five Friday Facts #64
News
News
In China, most valuable brands are also the top brands on social media
A recent report by Resonance China indicated that the top brands on social media are also the biggest and most valuable brands in China. The report refers to BrandZ’s annual report on the Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands, and indicates that these brands are consistently increasing their presence on social media channels.
While five of the top 15 social media brands were state owned enterprises, the report demonstrates that this trend applies to most industries and brand categories. As Resonance China notes, the top 20 brands on social media averaged a valuation of $10 billion. By contrast, the other 30 brands (i.e., those from the top 50 that didn’t make the cut on social media rankings) averaged a valuation of $3.9 billion, indicating a strong correlation between social media presence and brand value.
70% of questions are being ignored by brands on Twitter
In April 2012, Socialbakers reported that brands ignored 70% of the questions asked on Facebook. Socialbakers now reports that brands have been just as unresponsive across channels. In particular, they found that 70% of customer questions also remained unanswered by brands on Twitter. While these numbers can be discouraging, Socialbakers demonstrated how some brands still performed well and ahead of the curve, by consistently responding to enquiries in a timely fashion–a crucial aspect of engaging with an audience on social media. Socialbakers provided rankings for the Top 10 Socially Devoted Worldwide Brands, as well as the Top 10 Least Socially Devoted Worldwide Brands on Twitter.
It is interesting to note that the bottom ten brands have a much larger number of followers on average than their top ten counterparts do on Twitter. This may indicate that the bottom 10’s collective underperformance is partially due to having a larger fan base–making interactions more frequent and difficult to manage efficiently. However, the top 10 is still populated with large global brands like Vodafone, Nike and American Airlines–while the average number of followers may be smaller for the top 10, nearly all of them still claim a response rate over 70%, and reach their customers within minutes with their response. Combined, these aspects make it clear that there’s always a way to improve for those brands listed in the bottom 10.
37% of PC users switch to tablet, smartphone for web
According to a recent report by TheNextWeb, more consumers are switching from PCs to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Based on a study by market research house NPD, this growth confirms that there is an increasing trend of netizens consuming web and digital media on the go. The study specifically demonstrated that 27% of PC users migrated to using tablets for web browsing, while 20% of them switched for Facebook. An equal portion of 27% of PC users also took to their smartphones for both browsing the web and using Facebook. Free games and reading books or magazines tied for the third most popular activity that shifted from PCs to tablets. Interestingly, this contrasts with the third most popular activity on smartphones, posting or uploading photos.
NPD also notes that TVs are cutting into the multiscreening pie as well. 21% of consumers reported that they started switching to their internet-enabled TVs for streaming videos and using services like Hulu and Netflix. TheNextWeb notes that all of these activities are generally characterised by content consumption–a salient point that suggests this trend is less likely to affect content creation, indicating its strength as a PC-based activity. While mobile devices cut into the popularity of the PC for these activities, it still remains the dominant device. 75% of PC owners browsed the web, while 61% of smartphone owners and 53% of tablet owners did the same. Facebook activity followed suite, claiming 63% of PCs, higher than both smartphones and tablets, with 55% and 39% respectively.
100 million unique visitors on Yelp, 9.4 million mobile app users in Jan 2013
Yelp announced that 100 million unique visitors viewed the site in January, a milestone for the growing social reviewing site. According to TheNextWeb, Yelp also has an additional 9.4 million users viewing the site through their mobile app. Yelp had just announced 86 million monthly users for Q4 2012 – up 31% from the previous year. Despite announcing losses of $5.3 million in Q4 2012, Yelp also reported increasing its YoY revenue in 2012 by 65% compared 2011. While investors may have some reservations about Yelp’s fiscal future, the site’s user base is clearly heading in one direction: up. Yelp also notes that their app logged 4.6 million calls and created 5.7 million directions for mobile app users during January 2013.
In India, 65% of marketers plan to spend more on social media in 2013
eMarketer recently reported that 65% of marketing professionals in India plan to increase spending on engagement tactics on social channels. Based on a report by Indian research house Octane Research, the results further indicated that 57% of marketers also planned to increase spending on email as well.
While 51% of marketing professionals indicated search marketing as a priority tactic, mobile came close behind with 47%. This makes social media the most likely to receive increased spending amongst all types of digital marketing in India. The primary reason for this may lie in the perception that email and social media are effective in leading to engagement. To this end, more than 75% of respondents indicated that they considered email and social media the best way to engage their customers online.