More Online Shoppers Follow Brands on Facebook

• More Online Shoppers Follow Brands on Facebook

An April 2017 survey by Campaigner, an email marketing platform, explored consumer interactions with brands. More than half of US digital buyers said they followed a brand on Facebook, which was significantly higher compared with any other social platform. It was even more common among millennials: Fully 65% of this cohort said they followed a brand on Facebook.

But social networks are not necessarily the top choice for interacting with brands. As a whole, only a quarter (24%) of digital buyers in the survey said they preferred “to interact with their favorite brands” via social media. Instead, in-store and in-person communication was the most commonly cited channel (65%), followed by company websites (58%) and email (44%). Respondents could site multiple choices.

Millennials were more likely to say they preferred to interact with brands via social. Almost half (47%) of this cohort cited social networks, compared with just 11% of baby boomers.

A separate study by Sprout Social found a fairly strong—but not overwhelming—correlation between following a brand on a social platform and purchasing a product from that brand.

Two-thirds of US Gen X internet users in the survey said they were likely to purchase a product from a brand they follow on social media. Millennials were the second most likely group to purchase from a brand they follow, at 60%, followed by boomers with 51%.

The study also found that older followers (Gen Xers and boomers) tended to be looking for deals, whereas millennials preferred to be entertained.