Social Networks Not Much of a Marketplace

This morning, Jack Loechner of mediapost.com blogged about "Social Networks Not Much of a Marketplace" in which he cited a study released by Workplace Media, outlining some of the hurdles major brands face as they attempt to create a consumer impact on social media networks. WorkPlace Media is a national media company that focuses solely on helping marketers reach the working consumer, with over 20 years experience.

In his blog, he goes on to give statistics provided by the company regarding time spent on social network sites at work, social networking impact on brand perception, and product/brand recommendations from social networking sites.

The statistics are interesting, but the comments are where the meat of the story really lies.

Time Spent on Social Networking Sites at Work (% of Respondents)
Time Spent	% of Respondents
Less than 30 minutes	78%
30 minutes	13
1 hour	5
Open all day	4
Source: WorkPlaceMedia, May 2009

Social Networking Impact on Brand Perception (% of Respondents)
Activity	Yes	No
Follow a brand's social network account	11%	89%
Opinion changes if brand has no presence on social media site	4%	96%
Opinion changes if brand has significant presence on social media site	12%	88%
Source: WorkPlaceMedia, May 2009

Product or Brand Recommendations From Social Networking Site (% of Respondents
Activity	Yes	No
Recommended business/product via social network site	25%	75%
Received a business/product recommendation via social network site	33	67
Acted upon business/product recommendation from social network site	18	82
Source: WorkPlaceMedia, May 2009

I'd personally like to know if this report was based solely on one social networking site or on the use of the major sites. I say this because Loechner also cites a recent Harris poll showing that word of mouth is a much stronger influence than social networking.When a group of adults were asked about their information-gathering process for the most recent purchase they made,

• 21% of Harris poll respondents cited "face-to-face with a person not associated with the company, such as a family member, business colleague or friend."
• 12% cited a phone call with someone similar
• 4% mentioned using "public online social-networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace"
• 4% mentioned "private social networking sites, such as customer communities"

Word of mouth is a social networking tool and is predominately used in Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. In fact, I would venture to say that Twitter is 90 percent word of mouth.

The problem is that branding companies have yet to figure out how to successfully connect with consumers without pushing products. "If your product, service or conversation isn't relevant, authentic, and valuable then all marketing efforts will work equally well - which is to say, not at all. Marry that with [the] (correct) assertion that word of mouth is social media and you've got a recipe for success: great product/service = social discussions = consumer buy-in," points out Trevin Bensko-Wecks.

"The 'social media' part of the equation as defined by this study is a relatively trivial outpouring of the meaningful activity that's happening below the surface. So, while this study successfully determines that a 'surface' social media presence is inadequate and ineffective, it only further proves the need for deeper and more meaningful engagement with consumers, and reaffirms the role of differentiated and authentic brand positioning and voice," says Alex Morrison, the first to comment on the blog.

Speaking of comments, it seems the actual meat of the information lies in the comments, not the article itself. It only touched the surface of social media instead of diving in and really figuring out what is going on and how to fix the problems.

To read the entire blog and comments, click here.

(via mediapost.com) (via @DennisMuse on Twitter)