Published 06/06/2019

‘Going viral’ is often seen as the pinnacle of success for marketing or advertising teams, with the social significance of a brand measured in likes, mentions and re-shared posts.

Recently, however, businesses have started to question the power of their social media presence. Cosmetics brand Lush made headlines earlier this year after it decided to close its UK social media accounts, directing customers to its website, email and phone line for one-to-one conversations, while also increasing its emphasis on indirect online engagement via influencer marketing.

Many businesses remain committed to their social strategies, but these rumblings of concern suggest that we need to develop a more nuanced approach to online and offline consumer engagement. At Kantar, we set out to study the link between the two.  It’s easy to assume that the way consumers talk and share information about brands online, on social media or in blogs, versus what they say offline, in face-to-face conversations or over the phone, follows a similar pattern.

However, research conducted with our partner Engagement Labs shows that conversations across different channels have almost no relationship to one another – what is being said in one sphere is not indicative of what’s happening elsewhere. In practice, then, marketers need to treat online and offline chatter as distinct entities, identifying which conversations have the most impact on purchasing decisions for different brands and managing their strategies and budgets accordingly.

Read the full Creativepool article, here.

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