Branding and Social Media. Two widely important yet misunderstood in today’s communication world. In the old days, brands -small or large- would depend on “ATL” advertising to spread the message, later they would rely on their websites or micro sites to sustain and support their campaign. A decade or so ago, these brands would rely also on their digital presence to push sales through e-commerce. Earlier this millennium, Social Media was introduced. What was thought of as another way to communicate between people such as IMs, now is highly being thought of as an important tool to boost brand perception, sales and equity. Brands finally realized that “pushing” the message is not the way to go, they could not treat customers as followers, it is now more of a peer-to-peer process.
Most, if not all, of the giant global brands have presence on all social networks, especially Facebook, Twitter and recently, Google+. These brands use social networks to communicate to their customers each in their own way; some rely on Facebook, while others might rely on Twitter or Google+.
Social Media, through its networks, can lift a brand, and might as well shut it down. Customers are no longer followers, they are leaders in the communication industry, they have the power to demand an answer to a question or a solution to a problem and brands nowadays cannot hide anymore.
AYTM Market Research surveyed 2,000 Internet users, randomly chosen from its huge built-in online panel. The researchers asked a variety of questions about how Internet users like to get updates about brands, where they like to hang out online, the kinds of people brand managers can expect to encounter in the social media universe, and whether prospective customers prefer to interact with brands on social media.
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