For Amy Kean, 1998 was the biggest year in social media history, because a controversial study was released showing that we can fall in love with brands in the way we fall in love with people. “The relationship with brands is complicated,” said Keen, citing a Forrester 2012 study which showed that your fans are your most valuable customers. “They are more likely to consider buying, purchasing or recommending.” Ominchannel shopping is on the rise. An example is that 46% of people researched products on smartphones and then went into a store to purchase.
Kean gave examples of all the things a brand can do to make them fall in love with them. “Imagine you couldn’t speak. You’d have to flirt, be pretty to communicate,” she stated, warning that just retweeting nice comments {eg Woo Hoo it’s Friday! Big thumbs up if you’ve got that Friday feeling } just created noise. “Think about the experience you can give, not the things that you say,” she advised.
“Malling” is a shift in social behaviours, and is indicative of shoppers being different things, such as a chooser, communicator, pleasure seeker, rebel etc. MPG Media Contacts did research which found that very few internet users have purchased through a social network, nor do they think they want to. “They need to be given an extra reason to use these platforms for something else,” explained Kean, who believes that small ticket items seem to be the way forward. The research showed that 21.8% of consumers would buy on a social network if they were brands they know and trust; 25.3% would buy if it was only available on Facebook. One in four people said they would be interested in buying beauty products this way. Special offers redeemable on Facebook and specially targeted products are further ways of connecting with new customers.