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Social networking platforms harvest authentic consumer insights by Grant Fleming, COO, Fontera. |
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Rapidly growing social networking platforms such as Facebook and BEBO are becoming reservoirs of opportunities and rich customer insights for marketers to tap into. Whilst more traditional market research methodologies have their rightful place, creative software applications within the social networking arena are becoming fast enablers for augmenting valuable and genuine consumer insights. This of course forms a fundamental and crucial component in the development of sustainable market driven brand strategies. Branded Facebook applications have been proven to enable marketers to create databases comprising of captive audiences for their brands and respective product portfolios. This coupled with the natural and easy going nature that social networking infrastructures bring, creates an environment where consumers are more open and relaxed in their interaction with the brand. This yields more in-depth and accurate insights into the nature and life-styles of consumers. This new software application technology, commonly featured on Facebook, is also changing and transforming the life-style patterns of consumers. The most recent addition to the Facebook branded application mix, conceptualised by Cow PR and developed by Fontera is the Lipton Habits application. Launched only two months ago, the application allows Facebook users to elect an old habit to combat and replace with a healthy new routine, where friends contribute to the process by posting comments of encouragement. The new Energy Hero Load Shedding Alert Service application has seen the successful achievement of an awareness driven initiative communicating electricity consumption levels in South Africa to social communities. This features an electricity meter, coupled with SMS alerts, which monitors and informs Facebook communities on the current status of electricity usage in the country and anticipated blackouts in their respective areas. Thunda.com, another popular branded application provides a creative mechanism for consumers to save and share their favorite Thunda.com photos with Facebook friends. The application also allows users to create photo albums and archive their favorite Thunda.com galleries, where selected photos can be presented in a funky photo strip within the personal profiles of consumers. The insights into the social preferences and behavioral patterns of consumers have been phenomenal to watch through the use of the Thunda.com application. These opportunities present a more pleasant way for consumers to connect with a brand, positioning it in a different light to the usual aggressive marketing tactics, where there are endless ways of building Facebook applications to heighten brand involvement and extract valuable consumer based information. Once the game is made and introduced as a Facebook application, companies can sit back, relax and watch their captive databases and consumer insights multiply.
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