Brands welcome on social media

• Brand websites still influential for SG users
  
• ¾ of respondents found these influential
  
• Social networks still able to introduce new brands to users

Singapore - The brand website still has influence over Singaporean consumers, with 8 out of 10 still visiting brand websites, says a new survey by Universal McCann.

Three quarters of respondents still found these websites influential. In fact, of those who joined a brand community, 72% said they thought more positively about the brand as a result, with 71% saying that they are more likely to buy the brand and 66% saying they felt more loyal to the brand. 63% said they recommended others to join. These figures indicate a "socialization of brands" as a major shift in how brands are communicating with consumers, according to UM.

The study, called Wave, is in its fifth year running and analyses the impact of social media on the global marketplace at current. Conducted in July 2010, Wave 5 covers 36,800 social networkers globally from 53 different countries.

Clinton Simpson(pictured), managing director, UM Singapore said: "There is a huge benefit to brands that engage with consumers in the social space, but the challenge is to identify the type of social experience consumers actually want."

Networkers also found social networks useful for discovering new brands. 45% said they found new brands through social networking, 75% found a recommendation from a friend on a social network page influential. 62% also thought personalised ads were influential as well.

Also, not all social buzz works for all brands. Singaporean users were more likely to create content and collaborate with people or companies for certain categories of products more than others. For instance, users were most likely to create buzz around mobile phone and services, but did less for sports.

Blogs were shown to have only a limited influence, with 34% in responding that they thought more positively of companies that have blogs and only 43% reading a favourite blog regularly.

Also, older net users have shown the largest increase in the usage of social media, with those of the 45-54 year old age bracket in Singapore leaping by 37% in the last 2 years to 60%.

Social networkers show no signs of tiring of this trend yet. 77% have responded that they would continue or increase the number of their visits to social network pages. 75% said they would visit online message boards and forums as well.

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