Social media-savvy Indians now powerful brand champions says Social@Ogilvy & SurveyMonkey

 Social@Ogilvy and SurveyMonkeys new research  reveals  that  Indian consumers are increasingly proactive and influential social media users. As a result, brands targeting Indian consumers need to be more relevant and authentic with their social media content to transform and grow their reputation.

An online survey of more than 5,500 social media users across 11 countries shows more and more consumers are noticing and actively engaging with brands via social media. Indian consumers, in particular, are more likely to interact with brands via social media than in many more mature markets, like the US, UK and Japan.

At a time when companies are battling to gain traction in India’s expanding consumer market, the study examines the approaches to social media needed to engage more consumers and convert casual supporters into real, long-lasting advocates, who amplify brand voice and promote it to others.

Vikram Menon, President & Country Head - OgilvyOne Worldwide, India says : "What these socially active consumers are looking for are meaningful connections with brands. Succeeding in this environment means that brands will have to have those conversations. Social media is also looked at today as a route to get brands to respond quickly. And brands need to be equipped to deliver against that expectation."

Sharers”, “followers” and retweets are crude measures of true brand advocacy.

Brands often boast about the number of “likes”, followers and tweets they garner, but are these measures of brand advocacy too crude? Are people that “like” and follow everything true brand promoters?

In India, almost all respondents to the survey (93%) say they had “liked” or followed a brand, product or service – a trend seen in other emerging markets. Indian consumers cited their desire to hear about product offers and news (73%) and their desire to give direct feedback (54%) as the main drivers for engaging with brands via social media.

Of those Indian consumers who have “liked” or followed a brand, over two-thirds (68%) have interacted directly with a brand and a higher percentage (87%) reported receiving a response back (shout out to social media managers in India!).

In India, we saw no shortage of “social sharers” who not only follow a brand, but who proactively share their experiences – 72% of respondents in India have communicated either positive or negative opinions about a brand with others.

These social addicts, who typically stay glued to the likes of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter on a daily basis, exhibit similar behaviors but there are still key differences and steps to transforming “sharers” into real brand promoters.

While almost three-quarters (72%) of Indian respondents are “sharers”, only half of these (33%) are true brand promoters.

However, authentic brand promoters—respondents who self-identified as being extremely likely to recommend brands and products to friends— are far more rare and influential than sharers.  The global research reveals notable differences between the profile of a promoter and social sharer.

How do Indian promoters interact via social media?

● They are intrinsically more active followers: three-quarters (74%) follow brands on a regular basis, while 70% can be defined as sharers
● Promoters follow brands in order to interact directly with them. 56% of sharers do this compared to two-thirds (65%) of promoters

Why do Indian promoters interact with brands?
● One of the prime reasons they follow brands is to be associated with them which 58% do, versus only 47% of sharers
● Almost two-thirds (61%) also believe a brand’s reputation is important, compared to only 52% of sharers
● They prefer to link a brand to their own personal identify, with 54% saying they feel better about themselves after using a brand; while 51% of sharers say the same

What action do brands evoke?

● The friends of promoters talk about brands much more: 65% of promoters see their networks regularly mention brands and products, while only 58% of sharers do the same.
● Promoters are much more likely to respond to their friends’ interaction with brands; 43% would purchase a product if it was mentioned by a friend, compared to 39% of sharers

Indian promoters share broadly similar characteristics.

True promoters have similar reasons for liking or following a brand - 78% want to hear about products, offers, or news. Others do so because they want to give direct feedback (60%) and interact directly with an organization (58%). Promoters tend to surround themselves by like minds when it comes to their attitude towards brand interaction on social media – 97% say their friends’ mentions of brands are largely positive.

Quality is paramount with virtually everyone with 93% of Indian social media users saying this is reason why they would be extremely likely to recommend a particular brand or product to friends or colleagues. And, it’s the main reason why 63% promoters would not recommend a brand or product.

But brands beware: While both sharers (96%) and promoters (84%) have posted about a great brand experience on social media, 70% of sharers and 61% of promoters have also discussed terrible brand experiences online.

What does this mean for brands?
 
Powerful conversations may fill the streets for revolution, but people are now moving towards more private and closed places of individual relevance. 
 
While it is clear people are more connected than ever – demonstrated by the sheer breadth of networks available to us – the research from SurveyMonkey and Ogilvy shows that it is the depth of connections that change our lives and the world around us. 
 
Ultimately, brands need to build relevance and trust through content and connections if they wish use social media to transform their brand, business and reputation.

5 steps to building brand relevance and trust in social media

1. Precision: Move from broad demographics to using behavior, interests and friendships
2. Moments of truth: Connect naturally with the right audience, in the right place at the right time
3. Inspire: Use culturally relevant storytelling that flows across platforms and markets, in real-time
4. Bond: Move from community management to customer engagement
5. Measure: Focus on harder business metrics, such as leads, sales, performance, loyalty