Australians falling in and out of love with brands online

Research released today has revealed that 82% of Australian social media users have connected with brands on social media and 29% of them are connected to more than 10 brands.

However 44% of respondents said they have dumped a brand on social media for reasons such as being spammed by the brand (55%), boredom with the brand's content (36%), and a lack of interest or bad brand behavior (19%).

The Always On white paper is the result of a partnership between Latitude Insights and the Social Hatch and aims to understand the opportunity for brands to connect, integrate, influence and engage with consumers on social media.

Conducted over several months, the study incorporated multiple data sources, including a series of in depth interviews with Australians who covered the spectrum of social media use – heavy through to light users, across life stages. The research also included a comprehensive online survey with 1,057 Australian social media users and a private online community for qualitative data collection.

According to the survey, consumers are connecting with brands on social media to get offers and discounts (30%), general information (28%), help or assistance (24%), give feedback (33%) or make a complaint (23%). These are mostly consistent with what consumers wants from their online relationship with a brand; however, according to respondents needs, brands also need to consider the importance of social in communication of new products and trends (33%) and the actual sale of their product or service (20%).

Kristen Boschma, general manager of Aegis Media’s The Social Hatch said: “It’s great to have strong evidence of Australian consumers’ willingness to connect with brands on social media but our report proved something that we’ve long suspected: brands need to offer more than just competitions, discounts and push communications to sustain their social media relationships with consumers.

“People are getting seriously annoyed with brands behaving badly on social media and they do not hesitate in dumping them if they are not meeting their communications needs.”

Tabitha Lucas, research director at Latitude Insights said: “At a time when media is converging and brands are scrambling to keep up, this research offers some very tangible insights.”

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